2025 was another deeply memorable year in the world of professional road racing. Starting in January and ending in October, hundreds of race days provided the scenario for some truly incredible exploits, amongst them crowning new World Champions and deciding six Grand Tours.
It was also a year where the topic of predictability and excitement became a topic of debate. Did Tadej Pogačar's dominant form take some of the spice out of the big races, because we could predict he would win? Was the drama of the women's calendar at times reduced by the near-certainty of a Lorena Wiebes victory on any sprint-friendly course?
Underdogs defy the odds at the Classics
The results sheets for the Spring Classics are, predictably, dominated by names like Mads Pedersen, Lotte Kopecky and Mathieu van der Poel, riders who won impressively but were always expected to be up there. But on two days this Spring, two riders really upset the apple cart.
The first came on the opening day of the Classics season, when Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and her breakaway companions caught the peloton sleeping, and held off the chase to win Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. I don't think anyone in the world had Claes down as their winner of Omloop, and it remains one of the most surprising and special wins of the season, plus the best in the Belgian's career.
The other came at Dwars door Vlaanderen, when Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) found himself alone against three Visma-Lease a Bike riders, including Wout van Aert, in the finale. Surely there was no way the EF Education-EasyPost rider could win, everyone thought. But somehow, Powless played the tactics to perfection, exploited Visma's dominance to his benefit, and took a mighty win that had everyone watching in disbelief. [MP]
Simon Yates turns the Giro d'Italia on its head on penultimate day
On the morning of stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia, I thought we were going to be writing about a very different surprise winner. It looked like Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was going to take the victory, which would have been crazy and unpredictable in itself, given he had taken pink on the gravel after Juan Ayuso started the race as leader, and then raced incredibly strongly to hold onto it.
But instead, the unpredictable story which had become the script was ripped up again on stage 20, when Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) went on a spellbinding attack to not only slay his demons on the Colle delle Finestre, but grab the lead of the race, and for all intents and purposes, the overall win. Given Yates' past capitulation on the climb that decided the Giro, it felt like a fairytale for him to win here, too good to be true even. But he did it, and behind him Del Toro and Richard Carapaz played a shockingly bad tactical game so pink was his. Grand Tours aren't often decided at the last minute anymore, but Yates proved they can be – and they're often most exciting when they are. [MP]
Two dramatic time trial catches
Time trials aren't usually the most exciting thing to watch as it's the outcome that tends to matter more than the process, and even that can often be fairly accurately predicted. Still, this year, two of the most unexpected moments and memorable images of the year came during TTs.
In the uphill time trial on stage 13 of the Tour de France, everyone knew Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) wasn't at his best, but I don't think anyone expected the extent of his struggles to be laid bare as he was passed by Jonas Vingegaard in the TT, the discipline that's meant to be his specialty. Seeing the rainbow jersey caught by the rider who started two minutes after him was very surprising indeed, and in many ways the nail in the coffin on Evenepoel's GC hopes. He finished 12th in that TT, his worst result against the clock since 2021.
The other dramatic catch came during the TT at the World Championships in Kigali, when suddenly the shoe was on the other foot, and Evenepoel cruelly, powerfully sped past Tadej Pogačar on the cobbles. Getting caught like that, especially by your three-minute man, is an ultimate moment of weakness, and something we really don't expect when it comes to Pogačar. It was a moment no one saw coming, and no one's going to forget anytime soon either. [MP]
Sarah Gigante's Giro d'Italia heroics
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) is a rider who has been knocking on the door of greatness for several years, but has too often been derailed by bad luck. At the Giro d'Italia Women, however, everything came together for the Australian, and she had not just a good week, but a truly amazing one. First, she soared to victory on the first big summit finish of the race, and then she did it for a second time atop Monte Nerone, this time launching herself onto the GC podium. She held onto that on the dramatic final day, securing her first-ever Grand Tour overall podium, and winning the mountains classification with it.
It's the kind of week we've always known Gigante was capable of, but that everything slotted into place for not just one big win, but two, plus third on the GC and the mountains jersey, was more than anyone could have hoped for but an extremely welcome breakthrough for anyone who has followed her story. [MP]
Demi Vollering commands the teamwork of the year at Strade Bianche
When a rider moves to a new team, there is often a period of adjustment, time for riders to gel, and the teamwork and internal dynamics aren't often nailed from race day one. That's what we think, anyway, but FDJ-Suez ripped that up at Strade Bianche this year, with one of the most cohesive – and successful – displays of teamwork we saw all season.
Taking on the gravel roads of Tuscany, the French team had a plan, and they executed it. Evita Muzic went up the road as a satellite rider, and then Juliette Labous piled on the pressure in the finale, all setting up for Demi Vollering - already smashing expectations only a matter of months into her tenure with FDJ-Suez - to take the win in Siena. After the peculiar team tactics we've seen in women's cycling sometimes – Vollering vs Lotte Kopecky, also at Strade Bianche, spring to mind – it was refreshingly surprising, and it also underlined that Vollering hadn't brought any of the sometimes bizarre dynamics of SD Worx with her to FDJ-Suez.
No one was quite sure how it was all going to work out, especially with three such strong riders in Muzic, Labous and Vollering coming together in one team. However, they quickly defied anyone who thought there would be a lack of cooperation. [MP]
Shock win at Amstel Gold Race
Though a formidable opponent in his own right, no one anticipated that Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) would triumph at Amstel Gold Race.
Even when the race came down to a tactical three-up sprint between himself and two of modern cycling's greatest champions, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Skjelmose still somehow seemed to linger just off their radar.
Evenepoel had done much of the work to reconnect with late-race breakaway rider Pogačar in the closing kilometres, with Skjelmose hanging on to his wheel, but once the catch was made the pair of titans marked one another and seemed to altogether forget that they had a third rider in the mix.
The Dane saved just enough in the tank for the exhilarating sprint, playing his hand to perfection to defeat the Olympic and World Champion to the line so he could take the biggest win of his career. [KF}
Fortune favours the brave in Rwanda
All eyes were firmly placed on a short yet powerful list of favourites for the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, with it seeming a little like Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), and Demi Vollering (Netherlands) had all but sewn up the medals before the race had even begun.
Cycling is rarely that simple. Its unpredictability is one of the reasons this sport draws in so many fans. Tactics, terrain, and conditions can all play a role in the outcome of any race and, in this case, it was the biggest risk-taker of all who came out on top: Magdeleine Vallieres.
The 24-year-old Québécoise formed part of a three-rider breakaway that pulled away from a reshuffling larger move on the last lap of a brutally challenging city circuit. While the field split apart behind the trio, they were roughly a minute ahead of the chase that included all the favourites, all marking one another until it was a case of too little too late.
Vallieres attacked on the last cobbled climb, distancing herself from rivals Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and Mavi Garcia (Spain) to claim a stunning solo victory and Canada's first elite road race rainbow jersey at the Road Worlds. [KF]
The rise of Kim Le Court-Pienaar
Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) has been steadily progressing through cycling's top tier over the last few seasons, but no one could have predicted the consistent series of triumphs this season - from Liège-Bastogne-Liège to the Tour de France - that led to her becoming one of the sport's fastest-rising contenders.
Le Court has been on a steep trajectory over the last two seasons, turning heads last year with a stage win at the Giro d'Italia and again this year with strong performances at Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, and La Flèche Wallonne.
She came into Liège as a dark-horse favourite, but wrote herself into cycling's Monument history books after beating breakaway companions Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ), and Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) in a four-way sprint
Her career continued to reach new heights this summer, with podium finishes at four stages of the Tour de France, a winning effort on stage 5 into Guéret and also time in the yellow jersey. [KF]
Anna van der Breggen's comeback surprise
Her name is synonymous with world-class athletic success, so Anna van der Breggen's return to the peloton with SD Worx-Protime after a three-year retirement meant there were great expectations resting on her shoulders this season.
A lot can - and did - change in those three short years, not limited to the rising strength of the peloton, the progress to a three-tiered team structure, and the rebirth of the women's Tour de France. It was anyone's guess whether the former Olympic and World Champion, and seven-time Flèche Wallonne winner, could reach her previous form, and if that would even be enough in this new era of women's cycling.
She may not have reached the prolific victories of the past, this year, but watching her go head-to-head against former teammate Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) into the steep slopes of the Santa Caterina and finishing second place at Strade Bianche was an unexpected surprise.
She raced all three Grand Tours and bookended a strong start to the second chapter of her professional cycling career with a silver medal in the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships, indicating that we can expect much more from her in 2026. [KF]
Wout van Aert's curtain-closing Tour de France stage victory in Paris
Second place on stage 8 into Laval just wasn't going to be enough to satisfy the gnawing performance expectations placed on Wout van Aert at this year's Tour de France.
Many were forced to consider the possibility that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider might walk away from this year's French Grand Tour without a win, but he laid all performance questions to rest on the last possible moment with a victory on stage 21 in Paris - adding a career tenth Tour stage win to his palmares.
Normally, the finale is reserved for the pure sprinters, though Van Aert had won on the streets of the Champs-Élysées in 2021. But this year's race offered a twist: the Montmartre climb, used in the Paris Olympics, was added to the second half of stage 21, bringing some spice to the finale in Paris.
Van Aert took full advantage of the foul weather conditions and challenging course when he attacked the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar, with 6.4km to go to secure an unpredictable yet memorable solo victory. [KF]
Tadej Pogačar's unfathomable season
It may seem counterintuitive to call Tadej Pogačar's exploits this season unexpected, since – especially by the end of the year – his victories became almost routine. And it's true that a lot of wins were ones everyone saw coming, as it would have been more surprising if the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider didn't win the Tour de France or the World Championships or Il Lombardia.
But, with all that said, could anyone, including Pogačar himself, truly have predicted just how much he achieved in 2025? The Slovenian's list of wins and titles this year is truly unprecedented, and whilst he set out to win all of these things, the fact that he actually managed it is fairly unbelievable. Take out perhaps Amstel Gold Race and not a single thing went wrong for Pogačar. Sure, he didn't win Milan-San Remo or Paris-Roubaix, but we always knew those were going to be big asks and he still finished well enough to podium in every single Monument in one year, something no one has ever done before.
On a race-by-race basis, we might have seen this coming, but if you'd said at the start of the year that Pogačar would win so many times with so few hurdles, I don't think many people would have bet their house on it. The wins may have lost some of the spark at the end, but look at Pogačar's season as a whole, and it's pretty unfathomable. [MP]
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