Evenepoel Survives Crash and Photo Finish as Vollering Soloes to Win

Both races resembled the world championship road races in that a long flat section preceded several laps involving one or more climbs. In the European title races, there was only one climb, the Možjanca, but it was a doozy, 2.1 km long but with an average gradient of 10.4%(!) – and it proved decisive in both races.

Remco lives dangerously but wins – barely

Despite a plague of rumours suggesting he would be riding in his home race, the injured Tadej Pogačar was there only as a spectator, so the outcome was always in doubt. But Evenepoel had his Belgian team cranking out the watts for much of the 196.3 km from Ljubljana to Šenčur, occasionally abetted by the Italians, riding for Ciccone, the Slovenians, riding for Primož Roglič, and the French, riding for anyone with the legs.

So that when the peloton tackled the fourth of the five 22.1 km laps, it had lost more than half of its population and many legs were starting to ache. Evenepoel attacked 36.2 km from the finish, on the fourth of five ascents of the Možjanca, and only Ciccone went with him. But less than 200 metres down the road, the Belgian took a corner too fast and crashed.

“It was a bit of a tricky situation the second-to-last time on the climb,” he said after the race. “I went a bit too fast in the corner, and I just slipped away. I think there I could have gone, but in the end we stayed calm, and we came back to the plan. And then I put in an attack just before the descent.”

Fortunately, he was unhurt and the bike was not damaged. So he remounted and joined up again with his Dutch teammate and Ciccone. Then, with 32 km left to ride, on the rolling plateau after the Možjanca summit, with the peloton reduced to a mere 16 riders, he attacked again, and again only Ciccone could stay with him.

The chasers could not cooperate, and the Italian and the Dutchman raced into the final kilometretogether, with Evenepoel in front. Ciccone attacked 300 metres from the line, out of a corner, and opened up a lead of about 7 metres. It looked done and dusted, but he had gone too far from the line and tired in the final stretch, while Evenepoel charged.

They crossed the line together, so close together that it took organisers about 10 minutes to call Remco the winner. The photo of the finish showed that Evenepoel had beaten Ciccone by about 2 centimetres(less than an inch). Another Italian, Christian Scaroni, finished third, 59 seconds adrift.

“It’s amazing. I have to thank my teammates a lot for the race they did,” Evenepoel said. “It was exactly how we wanted to do [it].”

Asked about that thrilling finish, he said, “It was looking as if I was not going to get it anymore. But then I saw him slowing down quite a lot with 100 metres to go, so I just came over him on the finish line. So I’m super happy, super proud of this performance.”

He went on to talk about the redemption of this win after his disappointment in Montreal. “It was honestly [a] really tough week for me after the deception of the Worlds. I think it was playing more in my head than I’ve been showing. So it’s a big relief to be back on a good level today and to complete my championship jerseys.”

The European championship was the last major jersey missing from the five-time world ITT champion’s Palmares. Apparently (according to Cyclinguptodate), Evenepoel has become the first rider to win every major title – world, Olympic, European and national championships – in both road racing and time trials.

But shed a tear for the unlucky and inconsolable Ciccone. “The first photo finish wasn’t very clear, then I saw the second one,” he said. “I’m truly disappointed. […] I have to say, in terms of placings, I think this has been one of the toughest years. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve finished second.”

Vollering repeats Montreal – but better

If something works, don’t fix it, the saying goes. After Puck Pieterse set a hot pace on the Voie Camillien-Houde climb one week earlier to set up Demi Vollering, her Dutch teammate, for the solo breakaway that eventually led to her first road race world championship, they decided to do the same thing in Saturday’s European Road Race Championship.

The difference was that in Montreal, Vollering went solo 39 km from the finish line, was eventually caught and finally won the title in a sprint. In Slovenia, the defending European champion took off with ‘only’ 14.6 km left to ride, built a lead of over 40 seconds and was never in danger of being caught. The final margin of 5 seconds, over Pieterse and Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser, was because the now dual international-title holder was coasting over the final 5 km and then slowed to celebrate near the end.

Vollering’s season must now be considered one of the most dominant ever by a single rider, male or female. Along with her world and European championships, her 16 wins in 2026 include the Giro d’Italia Women, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the Tour of Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne Femmes and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. “It’s my golden year,” she told TNT Sports after the race. “I can’t wait to race in this jersey all next year, and, hopefully, I’ll have another wonderful season like this one.”

Barring injury or other setbacks, that’s more than likely. Her dominance this year was similar to that of Pogačar on the men’s side, even if she is still, on occasion, too quick to pull the trigger, as she did in Montreal. She turns 30 in November and can probably look forward to at least three more years at the top, if she stays healthy.

And if the Dutch team stays as strong as it is because it is the strongest team on the road and – as she explained after her world title win – they sacrifice their own chances for her. But Pieterse didn’t sacrifice very much in this race. She stayed with the group of chasers, which included Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland, Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, and Antonia Niedermaier of Germany, and was the fastest in the sprint, just ahead of Reusser. Pieterse benefited from Niewiadoma-Phinney’s hard crash on the final corner, which accounts for the Polish rider’s sixth-place finish, 45 seconds behind the delighted winner.

“It’s crazy, and also a beautiful second place for Puck today. So I think we can be very proud of her effort again,” Vollering said. “I just really love winning, and it never gets boring for me. I think also it’s not only the winning for me, but just improving yourself and getting better every day, working on yourself every day, and seeing what’s still possible for the future. I think that’s what I love most about this job.”

While the world championship race was chaotic and thrilling, with many narrative twists, this race was fairly traditional, no doubt because, at 130 km, it was much shorter and, with only two climbs, it was less taxing – even if the Možjanca, which the women climbed twice, was much steeper than the Montreal climbs.

Still, that’s where all the damage was done to the peloton, especially on the second ascent. That is when and where Pieterse accelerated, Vollering launched her winning attack and the small chaser group was formed.

Results 2026 Elite Men’s European Championship Road Race

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Time
1	Demi Vollering	Netherlands	3:10:33
2	Puck Pieterse	Netherlands	+0:05
3	Marlen Reusser	Switzerland	+0:05
4	Elisa Longo Borghini	Italy	+0:05
5	Antonia Niedermaier	Germany	+0:15
6	Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney	Poland	+0:45
7	Juliette Berthet	France	+0:59
8	Franziska Koch	Germany	+1:55
9	Usoa Ostolaza	Spain	+1:55
10	Femke de Vries	Netherlands	+1:56