It was a family affair at the Bermuda Bicycle Association's (BBA) prizegiving dinner as husband and wife Garth and Deanna Thomson won the Male and Female Rider of the Year awards.

The annual awards dinner on Sunday night, which were held at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, acknowledged performances throughout the season with numerous awards being handed out to both senior and junior riders.

Garth Thomson, who was the most consistent rider on the local circuit, was good value for the accolade with the rider winning the time trial stage at the CD&P Grand Prix this year, and narrowly missing out on first place which went to Tom Barras.

Thomson is also the Bermuda national time trial champion and was a bronze medal winner for the second year in a row in the Caribbean Cycling Championship time trial.

Deanna went one better in the CD&P Grand Prix, winning all three stages of the event to claim the top prize.

She was the gold medallist at the Caribbean Cycling Championship time trial to go along with her silver medal in the road race in the same meet as well as being the Bermuda national time trial champion.

Other special award recipients were Alex Godfrey, who won the Junior Rider of the Year award and Darren Glasford, who claimed the Most Improved Rider of the Year award.

The entire junior national squad that represented Bermuda at the Junior Caribbean Championships were awarded the Most Improved Junior of the Year, a team that included Aaron Place, Philip Woolridge, Thomas Godfrey, Ryan Gunn, Tyree Armstrong, Alex Godfrey, Hayley Evans and Sophie Adams.

The Club Person of the Year award went to Conyers, Dill & Pearman for the local law firm's continued support of cycling in Bermuda through the junior national team and sponsorship of the CD&P Bermuda Grand Prix stage race.

Also part of the evening was a presentation by guest speaker Tyler Hamilton, the current USA national Road Race Champion and 2004 Olympic gold medallist in time trial.

Hamilton has been a frequent visitor to Bermuda and spoke about how at the conclusion of his gold medal race at the Athens Olympics the first face in the stands he recognised was Winner's Edge owner Greg Hopkins, signalling to Hamilton that he had taken the top prize.

Winner's Edge presented a new road bike to the BBA for use in their secondary schools programme. Receiving the award on behalf of the association was BBA president Peter Dunne.