Pinkbike Awards: Male Athlete of the Year Winner

Male Athlete of the Year Winner



Choosing one man to rule them all is never going to be easy in as diverse a landscape as the MTB Kingdom. Pinkbike's in-industry poll brought three nominees to the table - two downhillers and an enduro rider - all at the expense of a freeride, trials or cross-country star. Determining these front-runners was as difficult and confusing as ever, but among all the potential candidates one rider stood out, in our eyes the undisputed champ... Perhaps doing enough in just 3 minutes and 34 seconds of the season to stake his claim as the male athlete of the year, the award goes to the freewheel marvel.... Aaron Gwin.

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Aaron Gwin

They say 'begin as you mean to continue' and that's exactly what Aaron Gwin managed in 2015. Coming out all guns blazing at Lourdes for Round 1, the wizard with the striped sleeve put the fear into the competition from the off. Obsessively standing at the side of the track throughout practice in an apparent bid to stare French rocks into submission, he appeared to unlock its secrets, section by section, just by looking. At Fort William, despite the severity of the Highlands wind and rain, Gwin managed 2nd place, garnering enough points to steal the leader's jersey back off Bruni who had pilfered it away with his qualification points. Heading south to the Alps of Austria, another top performance was expected despite his enduring curse of component malfunctions on the Leogang mountain. But what we got wasn't a brake failure or another blown tire special; it was other-worldly. Perhaps even embarrassing...


The American muscle then wrapped the title fight with one more victory in Italy without seeming to break a sweat, neither from the physicality of the world's most technically demanding track or the psychological strain of the 2015 trophy on his shoulders. Riding his first World Cup as recently as 2008 and already the proud owner of 10 wins, Gwin took 4 more victories and a third overall series title to his name this past season. Charging ever closer towards Greg Minnaar's 'Greatest of All Time' record in only half the races, you have to wonder if he's capable of leaving the kind of mark on the sport that could never be replicated.

Here's to another good one for the Temecula man with a love of ice cream, Ford Raptors and travelling at inhumanly high speed on two wheels. $500,000 says he can do it all again and heck maybe add the rainbow stripes to the mix. Congratulations, Aaron, you are Pinbike's 2015 Male Athlete of the Year.