Written by Don Hamstre of don hamstre team
  
  Strange.. It seems like all of the important people of OCM gather today. What could they be doing? I walk towards the building and ask the guards what is happening. 'Some kind of gala' they answered. I was about to walk away when I realized something. When I woke up I knew I had forgotten something. It is the OCM Awards Gala. What a fortunate coincidence it is in the same place where I am for my holidays. Maybe I am still on time for the ceremony. I can still see some guests arriving, so I think I might be on time. I walk to the guards again and ask them if they could let me in. But the will not let me pass, because I have forgotten my press card. Rush, rush, hurry, hurry, to the hotel, get the card, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, back to the guards, show the card. I am in. But I think I missed the first award. I ask to the bloke in front of me which award I missed and who won it. 'Grmbl' he answered. I look at his face and see it is The Beast. Oops. I ask the same question to someone else. His answer: 'Best Breakthrough Team has been presented. I won it'. I look at his face and see it is Peter Siverbo himself! He led his team, Team Siverbo, to a brilliant season with a decent timetrial squad. I think he deserved to win this category. 'Congratulations', I say to him, before realizing I must have the wrong seat when a man with an angry face looks at me.
  
  I move to the press section of the building. It is a bit of a walk, because the press section is at the other side of the Colosseum and you can not go right through the middle. But the press section has a much better view at the proceedings, as it is right behind the podium section in the middle of the amphitheater. I believe it os my lucky day, as I have not missed any other categories due to a minor delay. Someone dropped the microphone off the podium. I do not know if you have been to the Colosseum, but it is a long way down from the podium to the basement, which means the organizers had a bit of a problem. 'Who decided that there was no money for a spare microphone?' I asked. 'You' was the answer that was given to me awkwardly quick by my fellow committee members, who were in the section next to me. Oops. I quickly phone one of my Italian contacts and he brings it really quick. Slight problem is that he asks a trophy as reward. I grab a trophy and give it to him. Problem solved I think.
  
  Time for the next category I guess. The award for Best Breakthrough Rider is next and presented by last seasons winner, Richardas Mikaitas. But I think he has gone a bit crazy as he asks if someone has a cookie. I am baffled when I see a rider jumping up from his chair and walking to the podium. Could his name be cookie? I did not see that one on the list. But Mikaitas says he is proud to present the trophy to of Stroopwafel. I guess it is some kind of running gag. I do not understand it. But Frank Kint is a worthy winner.
  Best Rider Outside Top Division is up next. This looked like it was a hard competition to predict, with three tour winners and a double classic winner. But it seems like the community thinks tours are not as important as classics, because it is Philbert Seaman who wins the trophy. The Irishman was dumped by Top Division team Yuri SuperTeam at the beginning of the season and sold to ScotterPop. In that team it turned out that he had the incredible talent of winning. He even made it to the top ten of the rankings at some point, proving that he can live up to his great potential.
  The next awards to be presented is the award nobody would like to get. Because it means that you are old. But being called Best Old Rider is still a pretty big honour, even though it probably means that your best days are in the past. 59 Tour results in between the

riders mean that we have some true all-time greats. Viola, Pope, The Beast, Malina and Attilla. A mixture between his Holiness, a beautiful name for a woman and three members of a raging gang of Huns. But the winner is; Lean Ahnfeldt-Mollerup. The Beast showed this season that he might be old, but that does not mean he can not sprint any more. Five classic results would be a great season for everyone. His manager had predicted this after last seasons awards with the words 'Molly will win it after this season at the age of 35.' I believe he did not think it was really going to happen, but it did.
  
  The contrast could not have been bigger with the next category. We move from the golden oldies to the young pretenders, the Best Young Riders award. Kint and Mikaitas know how it feels to get an award, but they are still very nervous. Dai, Eskildsen and Qvist are even more nervous, as this is a chance to win their first ever award. Will Mikaitas make it a two in a row? No, the winner is Hans-Erik Qvist. He had a very nice season at Pelles Gazelles, making it to the fourh place of the rankings at the end of the season.
  The least popular category of OCM must be the Best Hiller category. But I think it should not be like that, as the many hills often make the most enjoyable races. The trophy will be given to the winner by a great hiller, who always gave the public what the wanted: a spectacular show. I am talking about Anghel Ghidarcea. But wait, he is also nominated. Nevertheless, he still gets to give the trophy to someone else, because the winner is called Fred Hasselbaink. The young Dutchman followed in the footsteps of his team mate Evan Tomkins, making it three in a row for Gradient Levellers.
  
  From hilly we move on to bumpy. The award for Best Cobbler is up now and we see some familiar faces. Pope and Viola are nominated again. But Simon, Echave and Whiddon are also contenders and slightly younger. It looks like experience is seen as important, because the winner is Mauricio Viola This is the third time in a row, from a total of four, the Spaniard wins the award, chasing the famous Sieuwerd Schimmel, who got it four times in a row. Mauricio sounded surprised in his speech: 'I did not have a good season and many other guys did. But this award shows to me how much the community loves me. I think this is the most valuable award for me.' Glamourade is also happy with another trophy.
  Last season, the award for Best Timetrial rider was a battle between Sandro Montelbano and Richardas Mikaitas. This season we kind of expected that to be repeated, although Yrjänä Systonen also had a great season with seven victories. Elton Lonergan, who also won an award this gala, still active with Team Siverbo, presents the award. His speech: 'This season it was closer than ever before. We, of course, have two amazing riders. Sandro could get his third award, Richardas his second. But only one of them can get it of course'. The tension is rising now and everyone is anxious to hear the outcome when Elton says 'I fooled you there! They can win it both, it's a tie!' Mikaitas and Montelbano get to share a trophy. This meant we have a slight problem. I decided there was only money for one trophy. I mean, how big is the chance they tie? So we give Mikaitas the trophy and Sandro a nice jersey with our autographs on it. He should be very pleased with that, I think it will be worth millions in the future.
  
  Also worth a

million is the award for Best Sprinter. Otto Beier and Tadaki Ko are the big favourites to win this one. It was a pretty tight call, but the man who wins the award is Tadaki Ko. Even with a season that is not as good as normal, he was still on top of the rankings and therefore he deserves to win this trophy. But wait, I think I gave the trophy for best Sprinter away to my Italian contact. Oops. Time to improvise again. We gave Tadaki a teddy bear with our autographs on it. He seems to be very pleased with it, surprisingly enough: 'My mum would never give me a teddy bear because she said I didn't work hard enough. You guys are the first to give me a teddy bear in my whole life. I will cherish it forever'. He is a bit of a weird guy.
  The Stirling Dorsher Award for the Best Climber is not only a very long name, but also very hard to get. Frank Kint is again nominated, just like Attilla the Hun(garian), former winner Rolf Enoch, PJ van de Wal and Tomás Belo. The trophy is presented in a quite spectacular fashion, as the winning name will be in a fake cannonball which is shot from the top of the Colosseum. This all went surprisingly well, except for the fact that someone forgot to put the envelope with the winner in the cannonball. Oops. Luckily enough, someone remembered who won it. It is Rolf Enoch. It appears to me his is utterly shocked and his speech was a bit emotional. So let us move on quick.
  
  Only three awards remaining. The Elias Marquez Trophy for Best Tour Rider, try saying that fast seven times, is said to be a close call. I spoke to many managers and they all said they had voted differently. And a close call it was. 71 points to 68. Three points in between the top two riders. You should really be upset if you are the loser of those two. But the winner is even more happy and that guy is Björn Eskildsen He won Germany Tour, the most prestigious tour, so it's not weird he won this award. Very sad it is for PJ van de Wal, who was the unlucky second.
  Coming up is the category I hate the most, the Best Manager Award. Not that I do not value the managers worthy of an award, but their speeches are way too long and boring. What was nice this year, is that only one of the managers has won this award before and he was not the favourite to win it this time. Also some cookie jokes are being made, I still do not understand. But they are not about the winner this time. Because he is introduced as manager of Otto Beier and multiple other great riders. That must be Tirilla. The Danish manager is very happy and the speech begins.
  
  I wake up, the Colosseum is empty, the sun is rising. What am I doing here? I remember some fat blokes in a VIP section, happy people, some fit athletes, a teddy bear. It must have been the Awards Gala. I walk out to the Forum Romanum. I ask random people who won the Best Rider Award, the only one I have not written down the winner of. People think I am a weirdo, they say they have no idea what I am talking about. They say there was nothing in the Colosseum yesterday. Did I dream everything? I try to remember the winner of Best Rider, but I fall asleep again on a bench.
   I wake up, 'Tadaki Ko!'I hear, I look around. I see Lodewijk, my PR manager. 'Where am I?', I ask him. He tells me I have fallen asleep in my office. He said he could not wake me up and he went to the Awards Gala in the Apeldoorn Velodrome instead of me. Did I just dream the Gala was in the Colosseum? I ask him the winners. It turns out I have dreamed all of them correctly. Tadaki Ko also won Best Rider of the Season, that was the only one I missed. Maybe I work a bit too hard the last weeks. I should get some more rest, this is not healthy.