We have a winner of the Argon18!

Christmas came a little late to a reader in Virginia, USA, but it seems that it was worth the extra wait, as Mr Jose Aguto of Alexandria has been confirmed as our winner in the special Red Ace - Argon18 competition we held last month.

Thank you to the thousands of readers who entered this competition, where you had to correctly answer a question about the Red Ace preparation. Mr Aguto was thrilled to be called and keenly awaits throwing a leg over the very choice prize - a Dura-Ace-equipped Argon18 Krypton FC road bike from this rapidly emerging Canadian firm.

Mr Aguto, 39, is a keen commuter and occasional racer, although he said he's realised he's "not the second coming of Eddy".

"I'm a proud member of the (in)famous Team Lardbutt, Greg Taylor's squad/motley crew in northern Virginia," Jose told us. "I currently ride a Quattro Assi Team 2000. I use it primarily to commute to work year-long along the George Washington Parkway bike trail along the Potomac River into Washington DC, except when the snow hardens on the trail. I particularly enjoy inclement weather, when I and other commuters pass even more automobiles into work," he said. "I also ride with the Lardbutts on occasion during their regular Sunday morning rides, though I often wonder why, as getting dropped by 40, 50, and yes, sometimes 60 year olds does very little for the ego, though I suppose it could be worse since they generally do so with cheery smiles."

Well, it seems that Jose will now have one less excuse for being dropped by the rest of the bunch. Congratulations and thanks again to all those who entered. Cyclingnews is certain to be offering more great competitions in 2005, so there will be further chances to win great prizes provided by our wonderful sponsors, who help us bring the news to you every day.

And another winner!

While we're on the topic of prize winners, we'd also like to thank all of you who took the time to complete our 2004 Readers' Poll. We realise it took more than a handful of seconds to complete and appreciate the effort to recognise all those cyclists and events that made 2004 such a great year.

As a special incentive to all those who entered, we offered up to $200 in Cyclingnews.com merchandise as a prize, and the name who came out of the cyber-barrel was Mr Dahron Johnson, a former cyclo-cross racer who's had to put aside the racing to concentrate on his studies as a student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Johnson said he still maintains membership with the Cycles de ORO/The Printery team in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as belonging to the Vanderbilt collegiate squad. However, one is most likely to see him on a bike during his daily commute through downtown Nashville to and from school, jumping fences on closed bridges and giving the one-finger salute to more vehicles than one would expect from someone in such training.

Dahron plans to spend his huge kitty on items like the Team Cyclingnews jersey and knicks, Cyclingnews-branded socks by DeFeet and maybe even a poster. Thanks again to all who took the time to complete the survey.