Tadej Pogacar tames brutal course to retain Road World Championships men's road race title

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar became a two-time road race world champion after he won the World Championships road race following another remarkable long-range move.

Pogacar pounced with over 100km to go alongside Mexico’s Isaac del Toro, a team-mate at UAE Team Emirates – XRG.

The Slovenian – who picked up a maiden road race title in Zurich last year with another 100km+ move – went solo with 66km left.

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel took second and Ireland's Ben Healy made up the podium.

Pogacar becomes only the second man to win the Tour de France and the road race world title in the same year. The other? Eddy Merckx. Pogacar became the first man to achieve the feat back-to-back.

The World Championships road race is always an attritional one, but such was the magnitude of the challenge posed by the 2025 Kigali course that of the 164 riders who started, only 30 made it to the finish.

The 5475m of climbing was shared over 15 ascents each of the Cote de Kigali and Cote de Kimihurura, plus once up Mont Kigali - the Tour de Rwanda showpiece climb - and the famous cobbled Mur de Kigali. "Brutal" was the word Great Britain's Tom Pidcock would opt for afterwards.

Brutal was not just the nature of the terrain, but the manner in which the terrain was approached by its protagonists. Although a strong, seven-rider group was granted licence to go up the road, they were never going to be permitted to threaten the supremacy of Slovenia, with reigning champion Pogcar in their ranks, and Belgium, riding for last Sunday's World's TT winner Remco Evenepoel.

Between them, the teams in green and blue respectively limited the ambitions of Anders Foldager (Denmark), Julien Bernard (France), Menno Huising (Netherlands), Ivo Oliveira (Portugal), Fabio Christen (Switzerland), Mar Mayrhofer (Germany), Raul Garcia Perna (Spain.) The lead was only briefly allowed over three minutes, and was closer to two for the first 100km.

Early incidents included the retirement of two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe (France), and a crash which forced the retirement of a number of riders including Marc Soler (Spain) and Ilan van Wilder (Belgium.)

As the mid-race foray beyond the Kigali limits to Mont Kigail loomed, competition for front positions caused natural accelerations which caused the breakaway's gap to crumble. It had fallen to 90 seconds with 133km to go. Before they even reached the 6.8km climb, cracks were appearing in the alliance, with just Foldager, Oliveira and Bernard at the front by the time the peloton hit the lower slopes. Two minutes advantage looked to be enough for at least one of them to make it to the top before getting caught.

And it would have been, had Pogacar not decided to make his move at 104km to go. It did not, initially, appear explosive, but it was enough. On the steep gradients of the climb's final kilometre, riders in a position to choose had to quickly decide whether to follow, and risk blowing up, or let him go and hope the race came back together later on. Pogacar's outgoing UAE team-mate Juan Ayuso (Spain) was the first to opt for the former, with another colleague, Isaac Del Toro (Mexico) making the same call a few seconds later. For his part, Remco Evenepoel seemed to have a problem.

The trio of trade team-mates went clear on the descent before Ayuso developed his own difficulties on the Mur de Kigali, leaving Pogacar and Del Toro to press on together back into the capital. A thirty seconds gap grew to 50, as chaos ensued behind. Those riders able to chase had to quickly form a cooperative of their own. As the teams with the most presence in the new, 33 rider peloton, the onus was on Australia and Italy to sacrifice riders. Although prepared to relinquish the likes of Jay Vine and Michael Matthews, that only bought them ten seconds back from the lead pair.

With 77.4km remaining, Del Toro began to sway. At Pogacar's encouragement he briefly rallied before telling the Slovenian he was done and instructing him to go solo.

Meanwhile a frustrated Evenepoel was looking uncomfortable on an unfamiliar bike, and then immensely frustrated as he stopped to switch back to his more familiar Olympic Gold Specialized. That cost him almost a minute. Riding on rage, he ripped his way back to a selection of riders that had formed. With four 15km laps remaining it was Pogacar leading by one minute from Evenepoel, Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark), Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), Ben Healy (Ireland) and Jai Hindley (Australia.) It wasn't over, but the writing was on the wall.

Over the next 20km, Pogacar's lead didn't increase much, but nor did it come down, and it was increasingly apparent that it was costing the chasers more than the leader to hold it steady. Hindley and Pidcock both fell away on the cobbled Cote de Kimihurura, leaving three riders to fight it out for two medals. Having been clearly stronger than Healy and Skjelmose, Evenepoel made half of the decision with 20km to go, but never looked like closing the gap to Pogacar. The final time up the Cote de Kigali Golf, Healy said goodbye to his Danish rival, settling the podium places.

Unlike last year in Zurich, Pogacar never looked like faltering, or that he had gone too soon. He took on the last climb as steadily as can be, with more than enough time to take in the experience and enjoy the impressive crowds that had been roadside all day. He was greeted after the line by his partner Urzka Zigart, who herself finished 23rd in the elite women's race on Saturday.

As disconsolate Remco Evenepoel shook his head as he crossed the line in second place, while a much happier Healy smiled and saluted the spectators, as the first Irishman on a world's podium since Sean Kelly in 1989.

For Pogacar it was "a successful week." He admitted that the long-range attack had been planned "but I was hoping a small group would form, like we did with Juan and Del Toro, perfectly." It was, he said, "like a dream to ride together as a three." Unfortunately that dream came crashing down and he was with no choice but to press on alone. As the laps ticked by he found himself weakening and doubting his powers, "but you have to push through and hope for the best."

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