NARRATIVE. The Tour de France, three Monuments, the Worlds… The vintage year 2025 of Tadej Pogacar

Winner of the Tour of Lombardy for the fifth time in a row on Saturday, the Slovenian ended a mind-blowing 2025 year in style.

The world of cycling is full of traditions and legends. One of them would like the wearer of the rainbow jersey to be cursed. A lover of the history of his sport, Tadej Pogacar shattered this so-called curse in 2025. Iridescent jersey on his back, the Slovenian comes out of an exercise that could not be more prolific, with 20 victories, after his fifth coronation, Saturday October 11, at the Tour of Lombardy.

Certainly, it is less than his 25 successes in 2024 in 58 days of racing. Because last season, Tadej Pogacar added (and won) the Giro to his program, with six stage victories to boot, but was absent from the Flandriennes. What total would he have reached if he had gone back in search of the pink jersey in May? Still, the Slovenian Cannibal did not lack appetite for his seventh season among professionals with, among other things, a fourth Tour de France, three of the five Monuments, and a world championship swallowed. In 50 days of racing, Komenda's glutton raised his arms twenty times.

Colossal, this assessment is enough to frighten the competition, failing to tire a public which is divided into two categories: those who adore it, and those who wonder. “My team pays me to win, not to leave victories to others. You can't back down when an opportunity to win a stage presents itself. You never know when your last day will be”he replied for his part on the evening of the 13th stage of the Tour de France, after his fourth stage success in this edition.

In 2025, as often but even more than before, the Slovenian did not wait for the Tour de France to approach to come out of his cave. On deck in February, he won the UAE Tour, with two stages on the way, before taking on the Strade Bianche for the third time despite a big fall.

Like every year, Tadej Pogacar then broke his teeth on Milan-San Remo and Matthieu van der Poel, after having done everything to explode the sprinters in this Monument which still resists him. But impossible for him to overwhelm his spring rival.

Friends, the two Monument hunters engaged in a new legendary duel on the Tour of Flanders, won by the Slovenian. With this second Flemish crown, Tadej Pogacar then surprised the world of cycling by tackling Paris-Roubaix for the first time.

17min

A few days after breaking a few cobbled sector records on Strava, the world champion found Mathieu van der Poel in the Hell of the North. But, guilty of an error in a turn, Tadej Pogacar could not do better than second, behind the Dutchman.

“Of course we came for the victory, but in the end Mathieu was just stronger. It's not luck, but it's Roubaix. It was one of the most difficult races of my career. With more experience, I hope to experience things differently in the future”promised the Slovenian, visibly happy. Not as much as his sports directors who, in the absence of victory, could breathe: Tadej Pogacar had not disassembled his collarbone on the cobbles, and could still aim for the Tour de France.

Because it was obviously the major objective of the season for the jewel of Slovenia: to win a fourth Grande Boucle, in an equal match with Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel, who arrived diminished in the 2024 edition, and perhaps upset for the Belgian to have been beaten on his ground in 2025 by Tadej Pogacar on the Flèche wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in April.

In June, the three men left the Critérium du Dauphiné for a dress rehearsal. Result ? No false note for Tadej Pogacar, winner of the general with three stages in his pocket, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, Florian Lipowitz and Remco Evenepoel.

When it was time to start the Grande Boucle in Lille, Tadej Pogacar was therefore the huge favorite. A status that he (too?) quickly confirmed, folding the Tour even before leaving the Pyrenees, with four stages pocketed over the first thirteen days of racing. The Slovenian's raid was possible, he who had scores to settle with Mont Ventoux and the Col de la Loze, where he had lost in the past.

But Tadej Pogacar finally kept a low profile, before letting his spleen break out, on the evening of the 18th stage, in Courchevel : “Sometimes I wonder what I'm still doing here, it's so long. I count the miles to Paris. I can't wait until it's over, so I can go home and do something else with my life.”

This psychological wear and tear did not prevent him from lighting one last fireworks display in the streets of Montmartre, but Wout van Aert grabbed the final bouquet. After having mentioned a possible retirement after the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 (he will then be 29 years old), the world champion has been discreet. A well-deserved rest before the last block of a grueling season leading up to the world championships in Rwanda, which will be particularly difficult at the climax.

At the Worlds, Tadej Pogacar did not give any gifts. Fourth in the time trial, he crushed the line race, after an attack at 105 km from the finish, despite the pursuit of Remco Evenepoel. A world title to establish his hegemony. A rainbow jersey which will prevent him from donning the tunic of European champion, which the Slovenian conquered a few days later, again in front of Remco Evenepoel, again on a long solitary raid. With the Three Varésine Valleys swallowed, the Slovenian had set his final meeting of the year: the Tour of Lombardy.

In the north of Italy, Tadej Pogacar pedals at home. Not only because he is close to his native country, but because he had four consecutive coronations in this classic. With the fifth gleaned on Saturday, he equals the record holder in this area: the transalpine legend Fausto Coppi. Tadej Pogacar does even better than'The Champion, who had not won his five Tour of Lombardy in a row.

Such is the current destiny of Tadej Pogacar, so far above the current peloton that he is obliged to look for new competitors, even those who have disappeared, in the great history of the little Queen. A path to glory that he continues to prosper with his insolent talent. But with these first signs of weariness, could this 2025 season be a turning point in his career?