December 09, 2012 – CBC announced that its “athlete of the year” poll was won on Dec. 8 by female soccer player Christine Sinclair. The poll asked respondents to choose between six athletes–including the skating duo of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir – but the only real contest was between Sinclair who received 46% (or 63,230) of votes cast and cyclist Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) who received  39% (or 53,813) of the 136,534 votes received. Virtue and Moir finished a distant third with 8,177 votes.

Pedal readers are well familiar with Hesjedal’s accolades, including his overall win at the 2012 Giro d’Italia, making him the first Canadian to ever finish on the podium at one of the Grand Tours (Giro, Tour de France, and Vuelta). He was doing well in the early stages of the 2012 TdF, but a crash in Stage 6 forced him to withdraw from that contest. He finished 6th at the 2010 TdF. Hesjedal was also Canada’s sole representative at for the men’s road team at the 2012 Olympics. The cyclist from Victoria, BC celebrates his 32nd birthday today, December 9. Pedal joins the Canadian bike community in wishing him a happy birthday!

Sinclair, 29, is a star striker whose accolades include guiding Canada to its first ever Olympic medal in soccer this year in a win against France in a bronze medal contest. Like Hesjedal, she has gained considerable international fame in a sport where Canada does not have a tradition of winning. She scored a Canadian record with 23 goals in 2012, on top of previous records in 2007 (16), and 2000 (15) and is the reigning Canada Soccer Player of the Year. Sinclair has scored 143 international goals over her career, ranking her third behind Americans Amy Wambach (148) and Mia Hamm (158). In 2012, Sinclair played for the Western New York Flash team.

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