T.A.D.E.J. P.O.G.A.C.A.R! Best rider in the world keeps the rainbow jersey for another year
CyclingSunday, 28 September 2025 at 16:30
Tadej Pogacar won the elite men's road race with an incredible superiority at the 2025 World Cycling Championships in Rwanda. After Saturday's bizarre elite women's race, we were even more excited, but just like in 2024, it turned out to be a one-man show. After Pogacar broke away on Mount Kigali with some UAE riders, he went on to win solo after 66 kilometers. Remco Evenepoel finished second after a very disappointing day, with Ben Healy in third.
267.5 kilometers, a grueling circuit, an extra lap over Mount Kigali... Let's start slowly, shall we? Evenepoel and Pogacar hinted at this as the top favorites at the start, but France had other plans. From the start, a nice group of five rode away, with Anders Foldager (Denmark), Menno Huising (Netherlands), Ivo Oliveira (Portugal), Fabio Christen (Switzerland), and Marius Mayrhofer (Germany).
Julien Bernard made the crossing on behalf of France, but it was clear that the French had someone else in mind. Julian Alaphilippe, Paul Seixas, and Valentin Paret-Peintre all got on their pedals, but Belgium and Slovenia were fine with the six in front. Alaphilippe was also not in good shape, fell behind, and eventually gave up. Seixas and even Isaac Del Toro (Mexico) were caught.
After more than 30 kilometers of battle and two explosive laps around Kigali, the peloton settled down. France accepted the situation, and the leading group of six was given some space again. Only the Spaniard Raúl Garcia Pierna had managed to break away in all the commotion and tried to make the crossing. However, the front group did not wait. Garcia Pierna managed to catch up after a long chase.
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Sanitary stops for Pogacar and Evenepoel
About 220 kilometers from the finish, the first riders were on the ground. The crash had serious consequences. Ilan Van Wilder and Marc Soler, representing Belgium and Spain, were badly injured. Both riders had to abandon the race. The withdrawal of Van Wilder, the number three in the World Time Trial Championships, was a significant setback for Evenepoel. Not much later, France suffered another blow with the withdrawal of Louis Barre, who appeared to be ill.
The Belgians and Slovenians set a fast pace for the peloton. They clearly wanted to make it a tough race. Pogacar looked relaxed in the peloton and even took the time for a toilet break in a Dixi toilet along the course. Led by Domen Novak and Matej Mohoric, the Slovenian leader was then brought back. Evenepoel also made a sanitary stop one lap later.
After the ninth lap, the riders left the local circuit for, among other things, the important Mont Kigali (5.9 km at 6.9 percent). Meanwhile, the leading group splintered at the front. Huising, among others, had to drop back. This left Bernard, Foldager, and Oliveira at the front. Their lead fluctuated around two minutes.
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Pogacar and Del Toro crack Ayuso, Evenepoel drops back
As if it were a sprint preparation, the peloton thundered down the foot of Mont Kigali. On the climb, Bernard got rid of Oliveira and Foldager. After preparatory work by Novak, Pogacar placed his acceleration in the peloton. Evenepoel was initially able to follow, but had to pay for that effort. The Spaniard Juan Ayuso and Del Toro were the only ones able to join the Slovenian.
After a short descent, Del Toro pushed furiously on the steep Mur de Kigali. Ayuso completely exploded as a result. Pogacar kept up by quickly jumping over the Spaniard. Del Toro and Pogacar then joined forces and quickly built up a one-minute lead over a large group of pursuers, including Evenepoel. Bauke Mollema and Thymen Arensman represented the Netherlands.
For a moment, it looked like we were going to see a bizarre 100-kilometer attack from Pogacar and Del Toro, but the Mexican hit the wall with 70 kilometers to go. Pogacar saw this and took his UAE teammate in tow for a while; however, that lasted only one lap, after which Pogacar really had to increase the pace to give the chasers no hope.
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Evenepoel changes bikes twice, but still competes for silver
Because a lot was going on behind Pogacar, since countries were unable to organize anything, there was attack after attack once back on the local circuit around Kigali. Evenepoel was initially absent due to saddle problems and two (!) bike changes, but the Belgian came back twice, with a bit of help from the cars.
There was nothing wrong with the world time trial champion's legs, as Evenepoel proved when he accelerated and created a real split. The active Irishman Ben Healy was able to keep up, as were the Dane Mattias Skjelmose, the Australian Jai Hindley, and the Brit Tom Pidcock. The latter did so on his last legs, as he didn't have much left in the tank.
With 50 kilometers to go, Pogacar had a minute's lead on the Evenepoel group and more than two on a large group, including Del Toro. However, Evenepoel did not give up, even though he may have known that Pogacar was out of sight. He cracked Pidcock and Hindley, leaving us with only three chasers. Skjelmose and Healy began riding with the Olympic champion.
Will Pogacar collapse?
The only way to bring some excitement back to the World Championships was for Pogacar to collapse. With two laps to go, there was no sign of that happening, as he had a 1.19-minute lead over his three closest rivals. Pidcock was still in fifth place, but already 3.37 minutes behind, while Hindley, in sixth place, was more than four minutes behind...
Bizarre differences. Was it really just a matter of watching the battle for silver and bronze? Evenepoel made a desperate last-ditch effort, pulling away from Skjelmose and Healy as they approached the final lap. His deficit had grown to 1.26 minutes behind Pogacar, who could only miss out on a second consecutive world title with a stroke of bad luck.
Fortunately, that did not happen. Whereas Pogacar had to work very hard to stay ahead in Zurich last year, he easily kept Evenepoel at bay in the final lap in Rwanda. After the last cobbled section, he was able to raise his hands in victory for the second year in a row. The best rider in the world will therefore wear the rainbow jersey for another year.
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Latest Comments
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- This is a dumb question but still why doesn't the UCI consider a grand tour in the USA in the future. We have the desolate/scary back roads in Pennsylvania and Virginia, just like in France with loads of rural land and hills. Plus the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Cascade/Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I'm sure it'll never happen but honestly people in PA/NJ/NY/VT/NH would love it. We are already sports fans, what is another sport to learn. I am forever optimistic about cycling in the US.ryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- Zonneveld makes some excellent points.The sponsorship model is broken and companies like Verizon who have multi billion dollar with a B ad budgets need to be involved again.
Brucegel17-09-2025 - Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
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