By Greg Johnson reports in Adelaide, South Australia
Overall ProTour winner and Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans has cleaned up at the annual Australia Cyclist of the Year Awards, held in Adelaide, South Australia. The Predictor-Lotto rider was faced with stiff competition in every category he was nominated for following a bumper year for Australian riders on the international scene.
Evans claimed the Cyclingnews.com-sponsored Male Road Cyclist award, while T-Mobile Women's squad rider Oenone Wood took the women's equivalent of the award. Evans claimed the award over Tour stage winner and team-mate Robbie McEwen and Adelaide local Stuart O'Grady, who became the first Australian to claim the prestigious Paris-Roubaix Spring Classic this season.
Evans also claimed the Scody People's Choice award, which was nominated and voted by the Australian cycling community. The softly spoken rider wrapped up the evening by taking the night's biggest award - the Sir Hubert Opperman Trophy, awarded to the best performed cyclist each year. Evans took the trophy for the second consecutive year, beating contenders O'Grady, 500 metre time trial world champion Anna Meares and downhill world champion and world cup winner Sam Hill.
"They're getting pretty hard to win these oppy awards now," said Evans. "I feel sorry for Stuey, he makes history winning Paris-Roubaix - a monument in cycling - then doesn't win it, but that's only a compliment to Australian cycling and everyone involved in it."
"I think people's choice awards sometimes are often the best ones actually," said Evans, who also recently claimed Fairfax's top Australian sports person of the year award in addition to the new Scody-sponsored award. "Personally for me that's an honour to win."
"If we can continue like this we'll have our biggest and best season in 2008, I wouldn't mind finding 24 more seconds in July next year," he added.
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