Alberto Contador, who crashed out of July’s Tour de France with a fractured tibia then came back to win the Vuelta for the third time in his career in September, is set to be named the winner of the 2014 Vélo d’Or.

It will be the fourth time the 31-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo rider has won the accolade of the year's top rider, awarded through a poll of journalists conducted by French publication, Vélo Magazine, which is set to confirm the winner in its December issue.

Previously, he took the trophy for three years running between 2007 and 2009, making this his first win since testing positive – and subsequently being banned – for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France, resulting in him being stripped of victory in that race and the following year’s Giro d’Italia.

Besides his Vuelta victory, Contador also won the Tour of the Basque Country and Tirenno-Adriatico during the Spring, although he would finish the season second to fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of Movistar in the UCI world rankings.

At the end of what has been a particularly strong year for French cycling, the Velo d’Or Francais, for the best domestic rider, went to Jean-Christophe Péraud of AG2R-La Mondiale, who was runner-up in the Tour de France to Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali.

Instituted in 1992 when Miguel Indurain claimed the trophy, Contador will be the only man on the roll of winners to have won it four times.

One rider was awarded the Velo d’Or on five occasions, however – Lance Armstrong, who won it three times between 1999 and 2001, and again in 2003 and 2004. Vélo Magazine has since removed the disgraced cyclist from the list of winners, however.

Has the press got it right? We can think of a few other candidates who would have a strong claim – let us know your choice in the comments below.