Written by Don Hamstre of Schiavi di Don
  
  The Awards Gala went according to plan last season. I was so baffled by this, that I completely forgot about organizing a Gala this season. Until one of my fellow committee members noticed that it was about time for presenting the Awards. There was no time to arrange a location and I used my castle in Italy two season ago. (You have to stay original, using the same thing twice is therefore impossible) This meant that I decided to invite the nominees in the most important categories at my place, while the rest of the categories would be phoned.
  
  The big day arrived and it was getting pretty cozy in my living room. I decided to get off to a good start and phone the winner of the first category. Actually, this whole phoning thing was pretty exciting for the people who didn't already know the results, as it was a big mystery who would answer the phone. For the Best Hiller category, it is Otávio Velasques! Unfortunately, he doesn't speak a word English, Dutch or Italian, so he didn't really have a clue what I was talking about. Well, never mind, on we go to the next category.
  
  Best Cobbler is another phone call category and this time the phone was answered by Cristobal Zubizaretta! But again, I think he understood me either, as he said some words in Spanish to me of which I afterwards heard weren't the nicest, before

hanging up. Oh well, still plenty of categories left, and I decided to take my phone of speaker-mode, so I would be spared an embarrassment next time.
  
  Best Time Trialist is next and again I decided to phone, but when I waited for someone to answer, a One Direction ring tone in our room started to annoy me. I was about to rage on the guy who didn't switch his phone off, when I suddenly realized that Sandro Montelbano was actually invited for the Best Tour Rider category. But when he answered the phone call, I was even more surprised, because this is what he said: "Wow... I'm so surprised ! Honestly, I did not expect this award at all as I did not as good as pasts seasons in time trial races. But I think I know why I received more votes than the other contenders : in the description for this awards, all my season's victory are counted, and not only in TT. I'm pretty sure that many voters did not notice it and consequently, did not vote for the good guy.That's why I'll refuse this awards : if I win such a prize, I want to deserve it more than anyone else, which is not the case this season."
  So I had to make a phone all again and this time to Yrjänä Sistonen, who is probably the first ever Award winner who didn't get the most votes.
  
  Then I realized I had made a big mistake. My mum had guests invited in an hour. This meant I had to rush things a bit. The next cateogries,

Best Sprinter, Best Climber, Best Tour Rider and Best Young Rider had their nominees in my living room, so I decided to announce those three winners at the same time. Jerry Grundin won two of these categories: Best Climber and Young Rider. Cadman Kantor wind Best Sprinter again, while Sandro Montelbano did accept his Best Tour Rider trophy.
  
  Time for a phone call again, this time to the elderly, ehm, I mean the best Old Rider. When I first started at the Awards, he won an Award and this season he takes one again; it's Carroll Mullan!
  
  I now realized I had five minutes left before my living room had to be empty and clean. So I triggered my fire alarm on purpose and everyone got out pretty quick. Meanwhile, I called Folkert Gerrits to congratulate him with his award for Best Rider Outside Top Division. Two other committee members called the winners of the Breakthrough categories at the same time, so Laurend Bourgois and Boys San could celebrate too.
  Out on the street, everyone realized there wasn't a fire and their rage was beyond imagination. This means I fled, while screaming my congratulations to Cadman Kantor and Tirilla for winning Best Rider and Best Manager. Let's hope next season, everything will go much better again. Until then, I'm not in my secret hiding place in the Vatican, genuinely!