Written by Don Hamstre of Schiavi di Don
  
  The Awards are here again in their full glory. Over fifty managers have voted and the result of their votes will once again be made public at the Awards gala, which are normally quite exuberant and almost never go according to plan. This season, we as committee decided that a great place for the Gala would be the Bolshoi Theatre in Mosocw, Russia. It is an awesome venue and the guests and nominees were very pleased with it. I did however not book it as such, a friend of mine said we could borrow it if we kept things quiet. Also, we needed the money for our awesome committee party's, so a the choice to get something for free instead of hiring is always a no-brainer.
  
  And so the evening started with the first category, our Test category for Best World Tour Rider. The very first winner of this Award is.... Roman Wieckowski! But will he also be the last one? No, because almost 50% of the voters wanted to keep the category, while only 20% wanted it to be gone again. So we're happy to welcome the category for best WT Rider to it's (for now) permanent spot on the awards. I myself aren't that happy with it though, but we live in a democracy, so the voters get what they want!
  
  The Awards for Best Cobbler, Best Hiller and the Gregory Levis Trophy for Best Time Trialer will be presented at the same time, because we're short on that time indeed. I've borrowed the Theatre for an hour, so no time to waste. Best Cobbler goes to Cristobal Zubizarreta, Best Hiller to Benedict Guerrero and Best Time Trialist goes to Benito Falconio! Congratulations to them all and also to their managers, who did a great job this season.
  
  Best Sprinter was a competition between the Top-10 of the rankings during the last seasons, but with the rise of the Climbers this season,

we have a less impressive list of nominees looking at the ranking. But you would be a fool if you only looked at the rankings, because when you look at the results that riders with the likes of Amelung and Skjern rode this season, you will see that it is most certainly no weaker field than in past times. But despite the tough competition, we have a clear winner with double the amount of votes as the number two! Santiago Campelo had a brilliant season and deservedly gets the award, which might not be his last of tonight.
  
  As I mentioned earlier, the climbers had an amazing season, which made nominating the five best a tough job indeed, let alone voting for the very best of those five. But as always, the community delivered and we've got a winner. Number one of the OCM rankings Laurend Bourgois gets the Sterling Dorsher Trophy, after a very impressive season with two victories in classics and of course finishing with the highest amount of points of all the riders in OCM.
  
  We move on to a joined trio of categories again, this time Best Tour Rider and Best Young and Best Old Rider. Drazen Cetnik gets the Elias Márquez Trophy, while Santiago Campelo once again crushes the competition in Best Young Rider to win his second award and Carroll Mullan manages to defend his title as Best Old Rider.
  
  The Breakthrough categories are presented together too. Sjors Zon, who sky-rocketed up the rankings all the way to forth place, gets to pick up his Award for Breakthrough Rider. Team Stredet is chosen to be Best Breakthrough Team of season 29, with an equally impressive march up the rankings, certainly when you look at the amount of points gained opposed to their previous best.
  
  Whe were about to move on the Best Rider Outside Top Division, when suddenly a lot of

men in black suits arrived. They told everyone to leave immediately, because the boss of a local gas company wanted somewhere to dine in a humble manner with his mistress. We therefore decided it was best to continue the Gala on the red square.
  
  The Gala continued and I was about to give the award for Best Rider Outside Top Division to Joppe Marant, when I discovered that on my way to the red square I had been the victim of a pickpocket, who had stolen the Award trophy. So instead I quickly bought a cheapo tourist matryoshka doll and gave it to Joppe, who by the way won with exactly double the amount of votes than the number two.
  
  Two categories left and it are the ones who are said to be most important; Best Rider and Best Manager. For the Äme Anderberg Trophy for Best Rider, we have Marant, Bourgois and Campelo who've already won a trophy, while Arnþorsson and Amelung both came close. But nobody came close to Campelo in his categories and that isn't the case in this on either. Santiago Campelo is the king of the awards with three victories and is a well-deserved Best Rider.
  
  The final Award, Best Manager, was about to be presented when we were suddenly once again asked to move, because a honorary military march to fallen soldiers was going to be held at the red square. I wasn't going to have it this time though, so I stood my ground and was finally run over by a small amphibious vehicle, while Delion had shown his talent as a manager by avoiding to get hit, which makes him the worthy winner of the trophy.
  My visit to the hospital was of a short length, mostly because I do not trust Russian hospitals and managed to flee with the help of a friend. No more Russian Awards Gala's for me, but at least we gave (almost) all the trophy's this year. Lot's of luck this season and with a bit of that luck we'll see you on the next Award Gala!