Remco Evenepoel has received the Kristallen Fiets – or Crystal Bicycle – award after being voted the best male Belgian rider of 2022, with Lotte Kopecky taking the same prize in the women’s category.
Already a winner of the same award in 2019 when Evenepoel was in his first year as a pro, any other result for the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl racer might have been a surprise, but that is only further confirmation of his exceptional 2022 season.
The winner of 15 races this year, Evenepoel’s most notable victories include the UCI Road World Championships, the Vuelta a España, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Clásica San Sebastian, the latter for a second time in his career.
Awarded a total of 1,100 points by the voting panel mainly made of journalists, former winners and federation officials, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) – winner of the same prize in 2020 and 2021 – finished a distant second with 870. Third was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) scored 436, while Lotto Soudal sprinter Arnaud De Lie took 398 and Evenepoel's teammate Yves Lampaert netted 106.
“I won the Vuelta, but I think the Worlds was what tilted the balance and brought me the Kristallen Fiets again after three years,” Evenepoel said in a team press release.
“To be named the best male rider of my country is special and unique, something for which I’m grateful, so I want to enjoy this moment, because it won’t be easy to repeat 2022.
“I had a great year and I think it was the victory in Liège–Bastogne–Liège that changed everything and gave me the motivation and strength for the second part of the season, which was an incredible one.”
Lotte Kopecky was also anything but a surprise winner, taking the award, organised by the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, for a third straight time in a row.
In 2022, the 26-year-old SD Worx rider claimed victories in Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders as well as the Belgian National Time Trial title. She also took a second place in Paris-Roubaix and a silver medal at the Worlds road race in Australia.
With a total of 1,118 points, Kopecky had an even greater advantage than Evenepoel over the second-placed rider, Julie De Wilde (Plantur-Pura), who garnered 666 points.
In a third category, Belgian national trainer Sven Vanthourenhout was voted best coach of the year. The six medals taken in the Road World Championships for Belgium very likely helped propel Vanthourenhout to the top spot with 660 points ahead of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl duo Klaas Lodewyck and Geert Van Bondt, jointly awarded 364 points. Patrick Lefevere, the longstanding QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team manager came third with 330.
Belgium’s six medals in Australia comprised gold and bronze for Evenepoel in the elite men’s road race and time trial, silver for Kopecky in the elite women’s road race and for Alec Segaert in the U-23 time trial, and bronze for Vlad Van Mechelen in the junior men’s road race and for Febe Jooris in the junior women’s TT.
