Sagan tops Most Memorable Moment of 2015 in Cyclingnews Reader Poll

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Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) claimed 52 percent of the voting for the Most Memorable Moment of 2015 in the Cyclingnews Reader Poll, taking the top two spots in the category with his daring ride in Richmond to win the World Championship road race and his stunning ride up Mt. Baldy to put himself in position to win the overall at the Tour of California on the final day.

Sagan's daring attack on Libby Hill in Richmond and his solo ride over 23rd Street up through the finishing straight, barely holding off the quickly closing peloton, captured the imagination of Cyclingnews' readers in the 2015 poll. The Slovakian's journey to the rainbow stripes earned 41 percent of the vote. His stunning ride up Mt. Baldy during California's Queen stage, where he surrendered the leader's jersey to Etixx-QuickStep's Julian Alaphilippe but finished close enough to take back the final yellow jersey the next day in Pasadena, earned 11 percent of the total votes.

Steven Cummings' win during stage 14 of the Tour de France from Rodez to Mende marked the first-ever win in the French Grand Tour of MTN-Qhubeka and was the first non-Sagan moment to make the Readers Poll, coming in third with nine percent of the voting.

Reader's picked Fabio Aru's cracking of Tom Dumoulin during the Vuelta's final day as the fourth-best moment of the year. The Italian Astana rider held off a hard charge from Dutchman Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) throughout the race and then put the final knife in him in dramatic fashion to take his first-ever Grand Tour win.

Ironically, readers picked Alberto Contador's cracking of challenger Aru on the Mortirolo during stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia as the fifth most memorable moment of the year. The Spanish Grand Tour veteran punctured at a crucial juncture of the stage and was forced into a frantic chase as Katusha and Astana pushed the pace up front. Contador had to claw his way back up to the leaders alone on the mighty Mortirolo. Once that was complete, Contador then dropped Fabio Aru (Astana) 6km shy of the summit to cement his lead in the Italian Grand Tour.

Contador's Mortirolo ride was followed in the reader poll by Chris Froome's Stage 10 Tour de France romp, Taylor Phinney's comeback from injury with a win during the opening stage of the USA Pro Challenge, John Degenkolb's Paris-Roubaix win, Lizzie Armitstead's World Championship ride and Vincenzo Nibali's expulsion from the Vuleta a Espana for holding onto a team car.

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