Kirchen Luxembourg's male athlete of the year

Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia has been named Luxembourg's male athlete of the year at the Gala des Sports on Thursday night. It is the sixth year in a row that a cyclist has won the award, and the sixth time for Kirchen, who previously won in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. The six awards put him equal with ski legend Marc Giradelli.

Second place went to CSC-Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck, who with 306 votes was well behind Kirchen with 433 votes. Third was tennis player Gilles Muller (233 votes) and Fränk Schleck was a distant fourth with only 156 votes.

Kirchen, 30, had five wins this year, including the Flèche Wallonne . He wore the leader's yellow jersey for four days in the Tour de France.