Dec 28, 2005
Oscar Gazzetta Goes to Boonen
Tom Boonen took the Oscar Gazzetta, the top prize offered up from the Gazzetta dello Sport for a Pro Cyclist for his performance during the 2005 season. The prize was awarded from a vote by some of cyclings top names such as Bernard Hinault, Felice Gimondi, Christian Prudomme(Tour Boss) and many others. The voters were asked to pick their top three riders of the year when filling out the ballot.
Boonen beat out Danilo DiLuca, Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso to take the top prize. His performance during the spring classics, his domination of the field sprints in the Tour de France and his win in the World Championships showed that Boonen was the top rider of the year.
Lance Armstrong did not take the title simply because his only objective was the Tour de France. Boon and DiLuca performed well throughout the year, compared to simply one race. Felice Gimoni and Christian Prudomme rated Armstrong’s performance third after DiLuca and Boonen. Francesco Moser voted for Boonen, DiLuca and had Salvodelli and Bettini tied for third.
Interestingly Bjanrne Riis did not vote for his man Ivan Basso as the best cyclist, choosing instead DiLuca. “Diluca has been most consistent and complete in his performances throughtout the year” says Riis “He was great in one day races and during the Giro. For these reasons he deserves the Oscar especially since he won the ProTour overall”