Looking back at each season, we can look through a variety of rankings to discern the top riders of the year. We hardly need the UCI rankings to point out that Tadej Pogačar was the men's rider of the year, while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot comes out on top in the women's peloton.
The Velo d'Or prize ceremony will put any arguments there to rest, while we already know that Lorena Wiebes won the most races in the sport in 2025 with 25 triumphs to Pogačar's 20.
Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep)
It's a close-run thing for our top sprinter of 2025, but in the end, we've gone with Tim Merlier, who has the most top-level sprint wins from any of the riders on our list with 16 last season, including eight at WorldTour level.
Merlier has excelled throughout the season in 2025, picking up wins in the spring, summer, and autumn, with two wins at the Tour de France – both coming directly against his main sprint rival – the highlight of his year.
He beat Jonathan Milan twice in head-to-head match-ups in France and twice more at the UAE Tour, also adding two stage wins apiece at Paris-Nice and the Renewi Tour to his total.
Elsewhere, his tally of 16 victories was bolstered by triumphs against the likes of Juan Sebastian Molano, Dylan Groenewegen, and Olav Kooij at the AlUla Tour, Baloise Belgium Tour, and Tour of Holland. Scheldeprijs was another crowning victory, where Merlier beat Jasper Philipsen at the 'Sprinter's Classic'.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan has hit his stride as one of the top sprinters in the world during the past two years, and the past season was his best yet of five so far in the professional peloton.
The 25-year-old took nine wins in 2025 – some way down on Merlier's total – but seven of those came at WorldTour level, and he also took home three points jerseys to boot. There were a pair against Merlier and Philipsen at the UAE Tour, plus two more at Tirreno-Adriatico, both coming with points wins.
Another top-level win came at the Critérium du Dauphiné, the lead-in to his biggest showing of the season – the Tour de France – where he won stages 8 and 17 en route to a dominant green jersey victory. He rounded out his season with a win at the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, and he only missed out on top spot of this list thanks to Merlier's numerical superiority.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
With five Grand Tour stage victories and two points jerseys, few sprinters can claim to have enjoyed as good a year as Mads Pedersen just has. The Dane, who took 13 road wins in 2025, spent another year towards the top of the world rankings and is once again among the fastest riders in the world here.
Standing alongside those successes were a 56km solo victory at Gent-Wevelgem, podium places at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, the Danish time trial title, and a stage of Paris-Nice.
On palmarès alone, Pedersen's season ranks as the best of the men on this list. But with many of his wins coming on hilly ground where other top sprinters might have been dropped rather than flat finishes, we can't quite rank him as the best pure sprinter of 2025.
He was near-unbeatable at the Giro d'Italia, beating the likes of Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock across four stages with challenging run-ins, but on the flat finishes, Kaden Groves and Olav Kooij took the limelight. At the Vuelta a España, he won from a large breakaway, while Jasper Philipsen mopped up on the pure sprint days. As an all-rounder, Pedersen would top our list, but he's not quite at the top as a pure sprinter.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
With 12 Grand Tour stage wins, a Tour de France points jersey and a Milan-San Remo title to his name over the previous three seasons, Jasper Philipsen has perhaps the strongest claim on the title of 'best sprinter in the world' in recent years. However, one big crash in the middle of 2025 means he's just out of the running for that prize this season.
The road to Dunkerque on stage 3 of the Tour was where it all came tumbling down for the Belgian after he was inadvertently taken out of the race by Bryan Coquard while wearing the green jersey. He'd already won on the opening day and looked poised to add more wins to his Tour tally, but, unfortunately, it wasn't to be.
He still racked up seven wins during 2025, however, including three dominant sprint stage wins at the Vuelta a España following his recovery from a broken collarbone, among several other injuries, in France. Wins at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro, plus that second place at Scheldeprijs, stood among his other top achievements during a challenging season.
Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease A Bike)
With 11 wins to his name in 2025, Olav Kooij swoops in to the fourth spot on our list this year as the 24-year-old's rise continues. Wins at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour de Pologne, and the Renewi Tour counted among his WorldTour tally this season. He also tripled his Grand Tour stage win tally with two triumphs – including the closing stage – at the Giro d'Italia.
Elsewhere, there was success in the form of two stages at the Tour of Oman, a Visma one-two at the GP d'Isbergues, and another dominant performance at the Tour of Britain with three more stage wins. All that remains now is for Kooij to test himself on the biggest stage, which is why he'll be moving on from the Dutch squad for 2026.
He'll undoubtedly make his Tour de France debut next season with his new squad, Decathlon CMA CGM, and so he'll finally have his chance to battle against the best sprinters in the world at the biggest race in the world. Look out for his custom-built lead-out train featuring Cees Bol, Robbe Ghys, Daan Hoole, and Tobias Lund Andresen at the new-look French team.
Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike)
Up next comes another Visma-Lease a Bike rider, this time rookie Brit Matthew Brennan, who burst onto the scene during his debut season. A second place on the opening day of his WorldTour debut at the Tour Down Under hinted at what was to come before he exploded during the remainder of the spring.
There was a semi-Classic win at the GP de Denain, sprinting to glory from a lead group of eight, and then wins against Alpecin-Deceuninck men Kaden Groves and Tibor Del Grosso on rare sprinty days at the Volta a Catalunya. He also won on tricky days at the Tour de Romandie and Tour of Norway, as well as beating Alexander Kristoff in a bunch sprint at the latter en route to the overall title.
Brennan added more wins at the Tour de Pologne and Tour of Britain later in the year, while he also beat Milan twice in flat finishes at the Deutschland Tour. After a debut season with 12 pro wins and seven more podium spots, the sky appears to be the limit for the 20-year-old.
Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)
No sprinter won more races than Soudal-QuickStep's rising starlet Paul Magnier during the 2025 season. So why is the 21-year-old Frenchman not at the top of our season-end list this year?
His 19 wins are an impressive tally, for sure, but 13 of those came at the Tour of Slovakia, CRO Race, and Tour of Guangxi – races which featured sprint fields far from the quality of the Grand Tours or the major WorldTour stage races. Still, he racked up the wins throughout the year, and so he can't be ignored in our rankings.
Magnier is on the up and will no doubt be challenging for wins at those biggest races in the world in the coming seasons. This year, he beat the likes of Danny van Poppel, Ben Turner, Pavel Bittner, and Jordi Meeus while also scoring his first WorldTour win on a stage of the Tour de Pologne. Back in June, he beat Jasper Philipsen at the Elfstedenronde Brugge, too.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Since signing on with Alpecin-Deceuninck in 2023, Kaden Groves had settled into life as the 'third star' on the Belgian team, consistently racking up major wins, including eight stages across the Giro and Vuelta, two Vuelta points jerseys, and two Volta a Catalunya stages.
He continued in that role this year with some big results, even if the biggest didn't come via a bunch sprint. That, of course, came at the Tour de France, when, set free following the withdrawals of Van der Poel and Philipsen, he ventured into the break on the penultimate stage to Pontarlier and raced to an unexpected 17km solo victory.
Earlier in the race, he was third in a bunch sprint in Laval, while May saw him add another Giro stage to his palmarès in Napoli, narrowly missing out on another in Rome. Add in a career-best fifth place at Milan-San Remo – albeit some way down on the winning move led by Van der Poel – and it was a season to savour for the 26-year-old.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto)
For one of the rising stars of Belgian cycling, Arnaud De Lie, progress has been stop-start over the past two years, with his campaigns affected by bouts of illness. The 23-year-old hasn't yet kicked on from the promise of his rookie and sophomore seasons to become a Classic- and Grand Tour stage-winning rider.
But despite the various setbacks, he's still among the top sprinters in the world this year. Seven wins match his tally from 2024, while three WorldTour triumphs this time – including the Bretagne Classic and overall at the Renewi Tour – mean his wins are of better quality than last season, too.
Those results, plus semi-Classics wins at the GP de Wallonie, Super 8 Classic, and Paris-Chauny, put him among the very best finishers of 2025, while he has 10 other top-three placings to go with his victories. He hasn't quite broken through at the top level of sprinting, however, with four top-five places at the Tour de France.
De Lie may never be the quickest among the pure sprinters, but, like several on this list, his aptitude on the hills and cobbles shows he can win far more besides the flat finishes.
Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Rounding out our top 10 is our fourth Belgian sprinter, Jordi Meeus. The 27-year-old had a career-best year in terms of wins with four, starting with a triumph ahead of Biniam Girmay and De Lie at the Volta ao Algarve, where he took home the points jersey.
Another win came at the Tour de Suisse in June, while his lead-up to the Tour de France also saw him speed to victory at the inaugural edition of the Copenhagen Sprint. At the Tour, his season's big goal, Meeus grabbed a second place on a chaotic wet sprint finish in Valence behind Milan.
His final win of 2025 came in the hilly semi-Classic at Binche-Chimay-Binche amid a strong finish to the season. There was also a podium at the Super 8 Classic and four top-five placings at the Tour of Guangxi while Magnier dominated.
Honourable mentions
Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) showed that he could mix it with the pure sprinters on numerous occasions, picking up sprint wins at the Tour de Pologne and Vuelta a España in the process.
Matteo Malucelli bolstered XDS-Astana's points and win count with eight victories at 2.Pro level this season, including stages at the Tour of Hainan, Tour of Turkiye, Tour de Langkawi (three) and Tour of Taihu Lake (two plus the overall).
Likewise, Dusan Rajovic (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) won plenty in exotic climes throughout 2025 with races in Bosnia, Japan, China and the UAE among his 14 triumphs. Most were at .2 level, however, with his biggest win being a stage of the Tour of Hainan.
Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5) took five wins in 2025, including stages of the AlUla Tour and Vuelta a Burgos. He was in the top three at Scheldeprijs and the final day of the Giro, too.
Dylan Groenewegen rounded out his time at Jayco AlUla with three wins across the Tour de Hongrie and Tour of Slovenia, though he didn't record a podium placing at WorldTour level.
Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) didn't get a big result like his 2024 Vuelta stage win, but the 23-year-old Czech rider enjoyed a consistent season with 10 top-three placings, including stages of the Volta a Catalunya, Renewi Tour, and Tour of Guangxi. His teammate Casper van Uden stepped up with a stage win at the Giro d'Italia.
Juan Sebastian Molano's (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) big triumph came at the crash-marred Classic Brugge-De Panne, while he also took a win at the Tour de Hongrie and the points jersey at the Baloise Belgium Tour.
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won stages of the Tour of Holland and Tour of Hongrie (two), as well as his national title and a top five at Scheldeprijs.
Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) started the season strong with three stages at the Tour Down Under, but was quiet after January.
Finally, Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and Elia Viviani (Lotto) waved goodbye to the peloton with a trio of victories. The Norwegian won at the Vuelta a Andalucia and Arctic Race of Norway, while the Italian's final win came at the Tour of Turkiye.
Conspicuously absent from this list is perhaps Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), but the 2024 Tour green jersey winner struggled for victories this season, not recording a single win but many top 10s. With a new team possible on the horizon, it will be interesting how Girmay develops, as either a sprinter or Classics rider.
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