The curtain came down on the 2018 road season with the Tour of Guangxi on Sunday, and afterwards the riders - men and women - swapped lycra for tuxedos for the fourth edition of the end-of-season UCI Cycling Gala.
First held in Abu Dhabi in 2015, the event moved to China last year with the creation of the Tour of Guangxi as the final event on the WorldTour calendar. The ceremony saw a number of awards handed out, for winners of the various classifications of the men's and women's WorldTour and also for all the recently crowned world champions from the Innsbruck Worlds.
While the riders who'd competed in the Tour of Guangxi were all present, few others made the trip to China, meaning many awards had to be accepted by teammates on behalf of the real winners.
Neither Simon Yates nor Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) - the 2018 WorldTour champions - were there in person, so Matteo Trentin and Gracie Elvin collected their respective awards. New world champion and second-placed finisher in the WorldTour standings, Alejandro Valverde, was similarly absent, as was third-placed Peter Sagan.
The men's WorldTour teams classification was one of the few awards to be collected in person, with Philippe Gilbert leading Quick-Step Floors onto the stage to cap a season that has produced an astonishing 73 victories.
The evening also saw entertainment from Chinese singers and dancers, with Rigoberto Uran joining in, plus an address from UCI President David Lappartient.
Click or swipe through the photos above for a full view of the 2018 UCI Cycling Gala.
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