A new reason to say “Wow!”
The defending champion took off from what remained of the peloton on the longest climb of the race, the Mont Kigali (5.9 km @ 6.9%), with 104.3 km left to ride on the 267.5 km course, accompanied only by his soon-to-be former teammate, Juan Ayuso and his UAE Team Emirates–XRG teammate Isaac del Toro. He shook off Ayuso on the steepest climb of the race, the Mur de Kigali (400 m @ 11%), dropped the ailing Isaac del Toro with 66.6 km left to ride, on the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura (1.3 km @ 6.3%), and then slowly stretched his lead over his pursuers to win his second World Championship in succession.
The unlucky Remco Evenepoel finished second, 1:28 behind, and Irish rider Ben Healy came third, at 2:16. With his victory, the Slovenian became the first male rider to win both the Tour de France and the World Championship Road Race in the same year, two years in a row. The only other man who has achieved the feat at all was the great Eddy Merckx, but not in successive years. Soon, there won’t be any feats left for Pogačar to achieve – not in road racing, at any rate. What will he try then? Formula 1? Boxing? Freediving?
“I was hoping that a small group would form like we did with Juan and del Toro, a perfect combo,” he said after the race. “I was like, this is a dream to ride together as far as possible as a trio, but Juan had a problem quite soon on the cobbles and del Toro had some stomach problems in the race, so I was left alone quite early, and I was solo like last year, just fighting with myself. But I’m so happy I made it.”
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He went on to say, “The climbs were getting harder and harder every lap, and also on the downhills, it was not so fast; you still had to pedal quite a lot, so the energy resources were going towards the end, and it was so hard those few final laps. Of course, you doubt a bit, but you have to push through and hope for the best.”
Yes, it was a hard race, probably the hardest world championship ever, with 35(!) climbs and 5,475 meters of elevation gained. In other words, it was tailor-made for Pogačar. But it wasn’t for everyone. Tom Pidcock called it “the most unenjoyable race of the year.” But at least he finished the race; only 30 riders of the 165 who started made it to the finish line.
Out of the saddle
Evenepoel was seriously hampered by saddle problems and had to change his bike three times, losing at least 1:30 to the winner. But once he got comfortable, he rode superbly, catching a lead group, then joining up with Mathias Skjelmose and Healy to ride in pursuit. He eventually dropped them 20.3 km from the finish line and took a troubled but very impressive silver medal.
“I had the sense I could ride with Tadej, but cycling is a mechanical sport,” he said. “During the [Mont Kigali] climb, I was cramping in the back of my legs because my position was completely off. I could follow the attack for maybe half a minute, but then I was completely cramping. I just had to fight to the top, knowing there would be a bike ready in the feed zone.” Then he felt the saddle misalignment. “I rode one lap, but every kilometre made it worse, so I had to change again,” he said. “Without radio communication, I couldn’t warn the team in advance, so I had to manage it as best I could.”
Could he have won if he hadn’t suffered the saddle problems? No one knows. But it would certainly have been much closer. Still, he had an excellent week, winning gold in the ITT championship and taking silver on Sunday.
A shocking upset
What I said above about the strongest rider usually winning is definitely not definitive, because unheralded Magdeleine Vallieres surprised the best women riders in the world and won Saturday’s Elite Women’s World Champions Road Race with a devastating break on the race’s final climb, the Côte de Kimihurura. She became the first Canadian rider to win a gold medal at the road race World Championships, and she did it on the longest (at 164.4 km) and most difficult women’s course (22 climbs and 3,350 m of altitude gained) ever.
The 24-year-old was one of 10 riders in the lead group on the final two of 11 laps and was always riding hard, trying to keep pursuers away. The group was eventually whittled down to three. As they started up the Kimihurura, Vallieres unleashed a powerful attack, quickly distancing her fellow travellers, Niamh Fisher-Black of New Zealand and Spain’s Mavi García.
She increased her lead with every pedal stroke and crossed the line a well-deserving, if shocking, winner, 23 seconds ahead of Fisher-Black and 26 seconds to the good of García, who, at 41 years of age, was the oldest rider in the race. For Vallieres, who rides for EF Education–Oatly, it was only the second victory of her professional career, after winning the inaugural Trofeo Palma Femina last year.
After the race, she echoed the thoughts of most riders and cycling fans when she said, “No, I don’t believe it yet, no. For sure not.” Yet it was a dominant and clever performance, aided in no small part by the fact that, as she and her two riding companions were burning up the course, the three favourites, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Elisa Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering, fiddled. They came with the three biggest teams in the race, with seven riders each, but were on their own at crunch time. And each of them was unwilling to attack, afraid of pulling her rivals close to the line and then not being able to follow.
As Ferrand-Prévot put it, “I was waiting for [Demi] to attack, she was waiting for me to attack, and then it’s true that we let a shot get away. This is often the case in the world championships, or in championships in general.” Vollering finished seventh, at 1:34, while Longo Borghini and Ferrand-Prévot came 15th and 16th respectively, 1:50 behind the winner. They were also hampered by the fact that team radios are not allowed in the World Championships, so they often had no idea about how far they were behind the lead group.
In winning, Vallieres beat the winners of this year’s three Grand Tours, Longo Borghini having won the Giro d’Italia Women, Ferrand-Prévot the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and Vollering the Vuelta España Femenina. Call it a Canadian Grand Slam. Not bad at all, and well timed, as next year’s UCI World Championships will be held in Montreal. “It’s great to do it here,” Vallieres said. “But with the Worlds next year in Montreal, it’s perfect. It was my dream to win, and now it’s come true. It’s crazy!”
She said that her team was vital to her victory. “I’ve been dreaming about it for a while now – it was a big goal of mine for this year, so I prepared well and at altitude. With my coach, we knew this would be a big goal, so with the team, we focused on it. The girls believed in me, so I believed in myself and I really committed to going for it… I told myself I didn’t want to have any regrets, and I don’t.”
Results of 2025 Elite Men’s World Championship Road Race
- Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia 6:21:20
2. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium +1:28
3. Ben Healy, Ireland +2:16
4. Mattias Skjelmose, Denmark +2:53
5. Toms Skujņš, Latvia +6:41
6. Giulio Ciccone, Italy +6:47
7. Isaac Del Toro, Mexico “
8. Juan Ayuso, Spain “
9. Afonso Eulálio, Portugal +7:06
10. Tom Pidcock, Great Britain +9:05
Results of 2025 Elite Women’s World Championship Road Race
- Magdeleine Vallieres, Canada 4:34:48
- Niamh Fisher-Black, New Zealand +0:23
- Margarita Garcia Canellas, Spain +0:27
- Elise Chabbey, Switzerland +0:41
- Riejanne Markus, Netherlands +0:57
- Antonia Niedermaier, Germany +1:17
- Demi Vollering, Netherlands +1:34
- Kim Le Court Pienaar, Mauritius “
- Marlen Reusser, Switzerland “
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, Poland “
