Greipel, Becker and track sprint team win in conflicting German cyclists of the year polls

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Andre Greipel and Charlotte Becker were named German cyclists of the year by readers of a German magazine, while a poll on the website of the German cycling federation gave the honours to the track sprint team.

Greipel, of HTC-Columbia, topped all pros this year with 21 victories. In comparison, his teammate Mark Cavendish was second in wins, with only 11. Greipel sprinted to victory the entire season, opening with three stage wins and the overall title in the Tour Down Under. He won one stage at the Giro d'Italia, and topped things off with three stage wins at the Tour of Britain in September. He will ride for Omega Pharma-Lotto in 2011.

HTC-Columbia swept the 2010 men's' awards, voted by the readers of Radsport magazine. Second place went to John Degenkolb, who finished second in the Worlds U-23 time trial, and will ride for the American-based team in 2011. Third was Tony Martin of HTC-Columbia, who was third in the men's World time trial.

Becker was a surprise winner in the women's category, beating out Judith Arndt and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, both of HTC-Columbia women's team. The 27-year-old won the national road title and was second in the time trial. She also won a number of smaller races over the season for the Cervelo TestTeam. Perhaps not surprisingly, she will also ride for HTC-Columbia in the coming season.

The Bund Deutscher Radfahrer's website rad-net.de, came to a vastly different conclusion, electing the three men of the track sprint team as cyclists of the year. They narrowly beat out the world champion cycling ball (radball) team, with Greipel finishing third..

The sprint team of Maximilian Levy, Stefan Nimke and Robert Förstermann won both the World and European titles this year, as well as the overall World Cup.

Nimke was very happy with the results of the poll. “Winning ahead of such rivals is like a late Christmas present and gives us the motivation to continue from where we left off.”