 It's now time to reveal the results of this year's PCM.daily awards! If you've been around in previous years, you'll remember how close most of the categories turned out to be. There was just one tie this year (unlike the three ties including one three-way tie of 2016!) but plenty of close calls.
Just like usual, new winners join some of the more usual suspects and defending champions. Congratulations go out to all of you, whether you've just been nominated or also won an award - you're the soul of this site. Huge thanks to all who voted and especially those who also took the time to send nominations, in order to make the voting possible. And big ups to those who helped running these and the admins that enabled them…
The winners and runner-ups are all revealed below, and the full results have been posted into each thread in the Awards subforum.
Cycling Awards
Rider of the Year: Tom Dumoulin (38%), Runner-up: Alejandro Valverde (33%)
In a single-vote victory, the consistency of Tom Dumoulin, an exceptional 2nd in two Grand Tours as well as 2nd and 4th in the ITT and RR World Championships, just beats out the winner of that last race, as well as Abu Dhabi, Catalunya and an unlucky 5th in La Vuelta, Alejandro Valverde.
Surprise (Rider) of the Year: Primoz Roglic (30%), Runner-up: Simon Yates (22%)
A battle of two riders who stepped up their stage racing promise to a new level, especially on the three-week scale, as Primoz Roglic, winner of three stage races and 4th at Le Tour, takes it ahead of Simon Yates, who dominated 18 days of the Giro before coming back hard to win La Vuelta in September.
Team of the Year: Quick-Step Floors (71%), Runner-up: Team LottoNL - Jumbo (25%)
The pure classics dominance, a top sprinter and a record number of wins befits Quick-Step Floors "Wolfpack", but their dominance was impressive enough for you voters as they stormed to victory over new stage racing darlings LottoNL-Jumbo.
Grand Tour of the Year: Giro d'Italia (57%), Runners-up: Tour de France and Vuelta a España (22%)
Perhaps this is just a standard result for any year given Daily's biases, but from Simon Yates' swashbuckling reign in pink, to Chris Froome's jaw-dropping Alpine solo to secure the win, this Giro was certainly a deserved winner.
WT Stage Race of the Year: Paris-Nice (53%), Runner-up: Itzulia Pais Vasco (40%)
With a uphill cobbled opening slugfest of a sprint, three exciting breakaway wins and two great performances on the last two days from Simon Yates and then newcomer Marc Soler to take 2nd and 1st respectively, Paris-Nice provided perhaps just one dull road stage (Stage 2)!. The usual craziness of the Basque Country is always popular, and the hipster podium of Roglic and two Basque riders is a popular one no doubt.
Non-WT Stage Race of the Year: Tour of the Alps (50%), Runner-up: Tour de Slovenie (29%)
Nothing flat in the Tour of the Alps (you might laugh and say that it's in the name but it used to have a TTT) and five days of entertaining racing with youngsters O'Connor and Padun taking their maiden wins at such a level made for a well-deserved winner of this award, ahead of the Tour de Slovenie, which provided exciting racing and a massive startlist for such an event.
Stage (non-GT) of the Year: Tour of California Stage 6 (33%), Runners-up: Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3 and Tour of the Alps Stage 2 (27%)
If you liked the young climbers confirming their talent in the last two awards then Egan Arley Bernal's solo dominance in the Sierra Nevada is for you - bonuses for Geogeghan Hart, McNulty and Hindley as 3rd-5th all U23!
WT Classic of the Year: Paris - Roubaix (43%), Runner-up: Strade Bianche (26%)
Sagan finally winning on the velodrome with a 50km-long attack, assisted to the end by Sylvain Dillier from the early breakaway (!), beat out Tiesj Benoot's magnificent ride in awful conditions on the "Strade Marrone"!
Non-WT Classic of the Year: Paris - Tours (47%), Runner-up: De Brabanste Pijl (24%)
A revamped course for the ""Sprinter's Classic"" which now needs an extra set of quotation marks, as young all-rounder Søren Kragh Andersen finally found a race he could win and not just be very good at over some gravel roads in the latter parts of the race, soloing in ahead of Terpstra.
Site Initiatives Awards
Fantasy Betting Champion: Vien (17,434 PCM$), Runner-up: Paul23 (9,050 PCM$)
Just three bets all year was enough to secure Vien the crown, with over 14,000 coming in one bet with some dodgy odds: as the bumpy stage 5 of Le Tour was favouring a tough sprinter (such as eventual winner Peter Sagan), he put his money on "Another Rider" instead of the listed puncheurs!
Man-Game Fantasy Betting Champion: trekbmc (10,794 PCM$), Runner-up: Vien (8,200 PCM$)
Similar success for trekbmc on the MG side of things: one massive bet on outsider Chris Juul-Jensen effectively won him the crown ahead of Vien, who nearly does the betting double!
Fantasy Cycling Season Champion: AbhishekLFC (9728pts), Runner-up: dominox (9691pts)
A super-close 37 point win for Abhishek, with Roglic, Valgren and Dennis all in the top 15 leading the line for him! Dominox is agonizingly close but has to settle for second, no top scorers but the likes of Mohoric and Carapaz as well as many more subtop scorers gave his squad great depth.
Management Game Awards
Manager of the Year: Croatia14 (42%), Runner-up: SotD (29%)
A worthy winner for an active commenter, previewer, insight-er, helper and a little to his team's amazingness, it's Croatia in just his third year taking it ahead of the always-amazing SotD, the 2015 (tied) and 2016 winner.
New Manager of the Year: redordead (73%), Runner-up: quadsas (27%)
A pair of Eastern European managers do battle here and it's redordead for his consistent participation, HQ and already one of the highest commitments in the game who takes it.
Team of the Year: Isostar - Adriatic (52%), Runners-up: Festina - Dexia and Evonik - Elko (24%)
Two sponsors was the key to a nomination here. The men in lime deservedly the winners here thanks to their inventive squad, amazingly planned races and winning hearts on their way to back-to-back promotions, and, more recently a very solid start to life in the PT. Always the bridesmaid never the bride for Evonik in this category, much like in the PT rankings, as they tie for second with the ever-present Festina in a repeat 1-2-3 of the management category.
Reporter of the Year: tsmoha (58%), Runner-up: Aquarius97 (26%)
tsmoha wins for the fourth time in the past five year, due to his [insert German efficiency joke here] outstandingly high output with graphics and detail still one of, if not the, best in the business!
PT Race of the Year: Tour de France 2017 (56%), Runner-up: Ronde van Vlaanderen 2018 (33%)
An action-packed edition of Le Tour, with a legendary battle between 4 modern greats with great reporting from Aquarius97, just beating out an emotional win for GVA in his first year of declining as he finally triumphed over Bewley in his home race.
Non-PT Stage Race of the Year: Tour of Cyprus 2018 and Tour of America 2017 (31%), Runner-up: Tour de San Luis 2017 (25%)
Our only tied win of the awards as the crazy and controversial Tour of Cyprus, won by Roglic (not even the MG is safe from hipster bias) in its first edition beat out an extraordinarily close Tour of America, which was a great battle from start to finish as the CT strut their stuff for stage wins, Carlsberg put their manager into shock with sprint wins from multiple riders, MOL and Ticos scrambled to save their season and UBS pushed for promotion. Third placed was the 2017 CT's apparent best race (according to jandal), as their best puncheurs fought for supremacy, with Roux with perhaps the comeback of the year, 27th to 1st in two days and two stage wins, taking the GC victory.
best team hq: bennelong - mitchelton (33%), runner-up: philips-continental (27%)
the aussie team take the win thanks to their detailed monthly previews and reviews and the graphical amazingness of manager tsmoha. philips come in one vote behind with uber-consistent, well formatted and entertaining race-by-race reviews.
Site Awards
Best Forum Thread: PCT Roundtable analysis 2018 p/b "The Conglomerate" (33%), Runner-up: I see Dowsett everywhere... (27%)
A back-to-back win for "The Conglomerate" with the 2018 edition of their PCT analysis. Runner-up goes to the hilarious thread and "the peak of [trekbmc's] life" that is I see Dowsett everywhere.
Best Avatar: Gustavovskiy (32%), Runner-up: alexkr00 (21%)
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Best Story Writer: Kiserlovski01 (35%), Runner-up: Mresuperstar (29%)
Kiserlovski's continuing story chronicling the adventures of Caja Rural wins him the award, with fantastic graphics and writing. Legendary (and professional!) writer Mresuperstar is the runner-up for his work on Diamond in the Rough, which blends the old favourite Comeback-style user-lead development with unique use of both Football Manager and PCM!
Best Team Story: Caja Rural by Kiserlovski01 (67%), Runner-up: Crossroads by Tamijo (33%)
The aforementioned Caja Rural takes an amazing third straight win in this category ahead of the revival of Crossroads, which is the Carmen Sandiego of stories: the adventures of a nasty team you can't help but like, with plenty of geography lessons mixed in!
Best One-Rider Story: Diamond in the Rough by Mresuperstar (44%), Runner-up: Be a Pro in the 80's by zuff (38%)
Mresuperstar's latest takes the win, perhaps, one might argue, due to an active base of followers who want Marcus to end up as their chosen specialty. The 2018 edition of zuff's Be a Pro in the 80's series, showcasing great writing and graphical skills in its unique newspaper format, was second after tieing for the win last year. Special mention to jandal's Life and Times for its third year in a row in third!
Best Forum Game: ICL (50%), Runner-up: Grand High Wizard Contest (20%)
A big win for ICL as Bikex's management game takes out this award for yet another year. A close battle for second with the Grand High Wizard Contest prediction game coming in runner-up in its last year.
Best Site Initiative: Management Game (85%), Runner-up: Fantasy Season (10%)
For several years now the MG has won this award, clearly Daily's favourite initiative. Just three votes against it, two going to the fantasy draft-style season modelled on real-life cycling in its third season - and perhaps the last as an official site initiative.
Best User Project: Bikex with ICL (55%), Runners-up: Mresuperstar for Favourite Cyclist Contest and ringo182 for Velogames League (15%)
A commanding win for Bikex and ICL for another year, the fantastic organisation and spreadsheet magic. Recognition for some long-running organisers of other contests: Mresuperstar for his Favourite Cyclist Contest, a hallmark of the site which still sees huge participation, and ringo for his work on the Velogames Season.
Best Jersey Designer: hillis91 (39%), Runner-up: the_hoyle (35%)
A newcomer to this award as hillis takes the title of best jersey designer, with slick designs and contribution to DBs with his CT work. Last year's winner and perennial nominee the_hoyle is edged out by a single vote, with his huge numbers of MG and ICL clients obviously not turning out!
Best Stage Maker: Leon40 (40% lol), Runner-up: Tamijo (20%)
Defending champion Leon40 goes back-to-back, a true legend of the stagemaking community with innovative and wonderful uses of the stage editor. Tamijo takes the runner-up spot after a great year of crafting realistic real and variant CT races, doing a service to many!
Best Database: PCM.daily Lite Pack (37%), Runners-up: ICL DB and World DB (21%)
Daily's premier pack, though not on the huge scale of other years, takes it out thanks to the toil of our amazing db team despite their ups and downs: and in case you missed it there is a recent stats update here and if you want a full 2019 edition you can always volunteer your help! Behind the ICL DB nearly made good on a golden attempt to finally get a story game DB the award, tying for 2nd with the World DB.
Best (non-DB) Download: ICL Development (38%), Runner-up: PCM Career Explorer (25%)
It's finally happened: with a sexy new overhaul the ICL Development has upset the PCM-focused downloads and taken out the win ahead of the stunning PCM Career Explorer!
User Awards
Member of the Year: jandal7 (52%), Runner-up: roturn (41%)
Jandal was crowned as the member of the year for his activity all over the site. He ran multiple editions of the successful community game Mafia as well as running the story / story game Carbon Throne and is one of the most active managers and reporters of the Management Game.
New Member of the Year: Champ_Armstrong (100%)
An uncontested but no less deserved win for the only major new member to hit daily in 2018: he loves some cycling chat, comments in stories, maybe has a controversial view on doping with that username and has a lot of problems with his PCM - he fits right in, basically! Congratulations to Champ_Armstrong, we hope you stick around (and join MG)!
Most Improved Member: Tamijo (48%), Runner-up: Yellow Jersey (32%)
Two great members got greater in the top two, but it's Tamijo for top-notch work in MG and his stage-making, as well as story writing, general discussion and being an all-around great member of the site. Yellow Jersey has stepped up his game too this year and is also a fantastic all-around member.
Admin of the Year: roturn (61%), Runner-up: matt17br (22%)
A huge win for the super-admin for sticking this site together and his fantastic contributions running things as well as specifically hosting both the MG and the Fantasy Cycling season.
Funniest Member: trekbmc (45%), Runner-up: baseballlover312 (32%)
Look, none of us really know what trekbmc does or how it works, but it obviously makes us laugh enough for his to defend his 2017 title! baseballover's rants, quips, and reminders of when he was an immature 11 year old on the site see him not far behind in 2nd - his PCT preview a particular highlight.
Most Missed Member: SportingNonsense (53%), Runner-up: Ian Butler (31%)
The site super-admin takes out this award, his vitality to the site shows as he wins so dominantly on (hopefully) just a mid-length break. The story master, game-runner and all-around great guy that is Ian Butler takes up Jesleyh's former stronghold on second place.
And that ends the awards! Congratulations to all the winners, once again. As usual, credit goes to emmea for creating the signature design used for the userbars.
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