The Quick-Step Floors team celebrate winning the WorldTour(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Quick-Step Floors won the 2018 WorldTour teams classification(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
UCI President David Lappartient addresses the audience(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
2018 men's WorldTour champion Simon Yates wasn't there to collect his award, so teammate Matteo Trentin went up instead(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Alejandro Valverde wasn't there to accept the award for 2018 world champion, so the President of the Spanish Cycling Federation went up in his absence(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The evening's entertainment(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
UCI President David Lappartient addresses the audience at the 2018 UCI Cycling Gala(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Japan's Keiko Noguchi accepts the award for Para-Cycling women's C2 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
William Groulx (USA) wins the men's H2 Para-Cycling award(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Canada's Shelley Gautier wins the women's T1 Para-Cycling award(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Gracie Elvin accepts the women's time trial world champion award on behalf of Annemiek van Vleuten(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Sofia Bertizzolo was the best young rider in the 2018 Women's WorldTour.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Philippe Gilbert holds Quick-Step's trophy for 2018 WorldTour teams classification champions(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Simon Yates could not attend so teammate Matteo Trentin had to accept his award(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
UCI President David Lappartient grabs some snaps(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The evening's entertainment(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The evening's entertainment(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The stage is set(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The evening's entertainment(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Members of the Movistar team represent Valverde on stage(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The dignitaries on stage at the 2018 Gala(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
A word from 2018 Tour of Guangxi winner Gianni Moscon(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The hall for the awards night(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Guests file in(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The dignitaries on stage at the 2018 Gala(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The hall for the awards night(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Miles Scotson receives the award for men's time trial world champion on behalf of Rohan Dennis(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Gracie Elvin receives the award for women's time trial world champion on behalf of Annemiek van Vleuten(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Entertainment for the evening(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
2018 men's WorldTour champion Simon Yates wasn't there to collect his award, so teammate Matteo Trentin went up instead(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Ronny Lauke says a few words as Canyon-SRAM receive the award for the women's TTT world title(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Max Schachmann collects Quick-Step's prize for men's TTT world champions(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Annemiek van Vleuten wasn't there to collect the prize for Women's WorldTour winner, so teammate Gracie Elvin had to go up(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Peter Sagan was second in the 2018 WorldTour standings. Bora DS Christian Pomer collected his award(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Alejandro Valverde was third in the 2018 WorldTour standings. In his absence his Movistar teammates accepted the award(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
UCI President David Lappartient at the 2018 UCI Cycling Gala(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Jianlin Wang, China Wanda Group President, addresses the audience(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
There was an award for Peter Sagan but he wasn't there to collect it(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
The curtain came down on the 2018 road season with the Tour of Guangxi on Sunday, and afterwards the riders - men and women - swapped lycra for tuxedos for the fourth edition of the end-of-season UCI Cycling Gala.
First held in Abu Dhabi in 2015, the event moved to China last year with the creation of the Tour of Guangxi as the final event on the WorldTour calendar. The ceremony saw a number of awards handed out, for winners of the various classifications of the men's and women's WorldTour and also for all the recently crowned world champions from the Innsbruck Worlds.
While the riders who'd competed in the Tour of Guangxi were all present, few others made the trip to China, meaning many awards had to be accepted by teammates on behalf of the real winners.
Neither Simon Yates nor Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) - the 2018 WorldTour champions - were there in person, so Matteo Trentin and Gracie Elvin collected their respective awards. New world champion and second-placed finisher in the WorldTour standings, Alejandro Valverde, was similarly absent, as was third-placed Peter Sagan.
The men's WorldTour teams classification was one of the few awards to be collected in person, with Philippe Gilbert leading Quick-Step Floors onto the stage to cap a season that has produced an astonishing 73 victories.
The evening also saw entertainment from Chinese singers and dancers, with Rigoberto Uran joining in, plus an address from UCI President David Lappartient.
Click or swipe through the photos above for a full view of the 2018 UCI Cycling Gala.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
