Starting this Sunday - road.cc Bike of the Year 2016-17 Awards

It’s January and that means just one thing here at road.cc: it’s Bike of the Year time. 

Over the following days we’re going to be dishing out awards to the best bikes we tested in 2016, divided up into seven categories that represent the diversity in the road bike market.

This is the sixth edition of the road.cc Bike of the Year Awards and it certainly doesn’t get any easier. We tested more bikes than ever before in 2016, and the calibre of the bikes is higher than ever. 

On Sunday we’re going to start revealing the bikes by category and culminating with the biggies, the road.cc Bike of the Year 2016-17 overall winner on the following Friday. 

This year's awards are, in the order they will be published starting Sunday: 

• Sportive and Endurance bikes
• Commuting Bikes 
• Adventure and Gravel bikes
• Sub-£1,000 Bike of the Year
• Best Road Bike of the Year
• Frameset of the Year
• Superbikes Shootout
• Bike of the Year Overall Award

How do we pick the winners?

We pulled together the shortlist for each category by first rounding up all the bikes that reviewed well, so those scoring 8 out of 10 or higher, and then we whittled those down via a process of discussion until the best bikes shone through. In some categories there was an obvious standout winner, in others the debate was heated and lengthy. It’s no easy task, but we got there in the end - we tested a lot of very good bikes in the past 12 months at a wide variety of price points.

On Sunday we’ll start revealing the winners across these categories. We’re going to reveal the category winners first, before unveiling the best overall bike on Friday.

Last year’s winner

Last year it was a really interesting top 10, with the excellent Jamis Renegade Elite scooping the top award, the first adventure bike to win. You can view the full top 10 here.

These are articles you’re not going to want to miss, especially if you’re in the market for a new bike.