Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar won an epic men’s road race at the cycling world championships on Sunday, September 28, going solo from 66 km out in the 267 km slog over the hills around Kigali. Defending his 2024 title, the 27-year-old finished 1 min 28 sec ahead of the Olympic champion Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who crossed the line with his head down after a mid-race mechanical.
Ireland’s 2025 breakout star Ben Healy took bronze over the balmy, 1,500m altitude course leading the chase to catch Pogacar over the 33 hills and earning a place on the podium at 2 min 16 sec. Just as impressive was Paul Seixas, the 19-year-old Frenchman tipped as a future Tour de France winner, who came in 13th on a day where officials said crowds of around one million turned out for the final day of the weeklong world championships, the first ever on African soil.
The course was made up of 15 loops around the city with two climbs and one longer, even harder loop with an extra cobbled climb. Pogacar broke away with Mexican Isaac del Toro and Spain’s Juan Ayuso, who were both on the books of Team UAE this season.
Pogacar was a man transformed just a week after a humiliation in the time-trial, where he was overtaken by Evenepoel, who started 2 min 30 sec later than him. This time, Evenepoel displayed frayed nerves when he suffered a mechanical, waving away a reserve bike and kicking away stones waiting for his team car. He lost valuable time but when his car arrived he set off again on another of his golden framed bikes, denoting his Olympic champion status.
He swiftly caught Healy and the Pogacar pursuit, but never at any time was able to chip away at a constant 1 min 20 sec lead held by the Tour de France champion.
In the women’s race Saturday rank outsider Magdeleine Vallières-Mill of Canada pulled of a surprise win. The winners are awarded a rainbow jersey that they wear for the year, a much-coveted prize in a race where riders represent their nation rather than a professional team.