Chris Froome has been awarded the yearly Velo d'Or prize for being the best cyclist in the 2013 season. He succeeds teammate Bradley Wiggins as the winner of the prestigious prize after beating Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan to the minor placings in the poll.

It's the time of the year when several awards are handed out to celebrate the accomplishments of the best riders in the past season and today one of the most prestigious of them all was awarded. The Velo d'Or has been created by French cycling magazine Velo and this year the prize goes to Tour de France winner Chris Froome.

Froome had a highly successful season and won the Tour of Oman, Criterium Internation, Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphiné in addition to his win in the world's biggest bike race. He won the poll of international journalists and succeeds teammate Bradley Wiggins as the winner of the prestigious award.

"To win an award as significant as this is a fantastic way to cap an incredible season," he told the Team Sky website. I was fortunate enough to win the International Flandrien trophy a few weeks ago and to win this one as well is really satisfying.

"I'd like to thank all the people who voted for me, and while it's nice to be recognised for my achievements, my team-mates deserve credit as well because I couldn't have achieved what I've achieved this year without them."

Second in the poll was Giro d'Italia champion Vincenzo Nibali who added a 2nd place in the Vuelta and a 4th place at the Worlds to his Giro crown. In general, the Italian excelled on home soil as he won both the Giro del Trentino and Tirreno-Adriatico, defeating Froome in the latter race

Peter Sagan was third in the poll while Fabian Cancellara was only 4th despite dominating the cobbled classics by winning E3, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. World champion Rui Costa was 6th while Nairo Quintana and world TT champion Tony Martin were a joint 6th. Marcel Kittel, Chris Horner and Joaquim Rodriguez rounded out the top 10.

The Velo d'Or Espoirs for best young rider under the age of 25 was awarded to Quintana who impressed the world with his splendid climbing in the Tour de France where he finished 2nd and won both the white and the polka-dot jersey. In addition to his Tour exploits, he won the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Vuelta al Burgos overall. It is the first time since 2010 that Sagan hasn't won the young riders' prize.

The Velo d'Or was inaugurated in 1992. Following the decision to rescind Lance Armstrong's five wins, Alberto Contador has the record for most awards, having taken the prize three times in 2007, 2008 and 2009.