INTERNATIONAL RIDER OF THE YEAR

You chose the best riders from overseas. Here's your top five

- James Shrubsall

5 ANNA VAN DER BREGGEN

Spectacular swansong

Anyone who knows the Dutchwoman knew that while this might have been her swansong season, before she turns DS at her SD Worx team, there was no way van der Breggen would go quietly into her dotage. For a start she had postponed retirement for the Tokyo Olympics. She didn’t quite get the result she wanted there, but she still managed bronze in the time trial. And she added some big wins to her palmarès too, with a fourth GC win at the Giro Rosa and a seventh Flèche Wallonne victory.

4 ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN

Classic year ends in Olympic gold... and silver

Age doesn’t seem to have slowed the flying Dutchwoman, who this year spent all season winning some of the biggest races on the calendar – again. Starting with a brace of wins in the Northern Classics in the Dwars door Vlaanderen and De Ronde, the 39-year-old also podiumed at Liège and Amstel Gold. Marking time mid-season with a win at Setmana Valenciana, she then took her efforts to Tokyo where she won gold in the TT, plus a silver in the road race.

3 ELISA LONGO BORGHINI

The 29-year-old from the Piedmont region of northern Italy has had some great wins this year, and even more near-misses. She bookended the regular season nicely with one-day victories at the GP Alfredo Binda in Belgium in March and Brittany’s GP Plouay in August. A week later she was part of the winning team in the European Mixed Relay TTT Champs, and she also pulled on both the Italian national champion's road jersey and the time trial jersey in June.