Remco Evenepoel’s day at the UCI road world championships was a roller-coaster, to say the least. The Belgian champion, fresh off his time trial victory a week earlier, was forced into two bike swaps during the road race in Kigali.
The first issue was clear enough. “On his first bike the saddle broke after he hit a hole just before Mount Kigali,” his mechanic Dario Kloeck said to Wielerflits. “The tip dropped about two cm. The clamp broke off and the saddle tilted forward. He rode like that for a while, but you can’t fix it on the fly.”
Evenepoel managed a smooth change and rejoined the chase behind Tadej Pogačar and Isaac Del Toro. But trouble struck again on the Côte de Kimihurara’s cobbles. You could see the Belgian pounding his handlebars before swapping bikes once more.
This time, Kloeck said that there were zero issues with the bike. “We measured it three times, and the saddle height was identical to his other bike,” he said. “We’ll hear later exactly what he felt. But I think it was mainly frustration. He lost unnecessary time there.”
Despite the drama, Evenepoel fought on to salvage silver. But the sense lingered that without the hiccups, there might have been more in it.
Pogačar confirmed his dominance at the 2025 UCI road world championships in Kigali, storming to a second consecutive elite men’s title. On the punishing 267.5-km course, which stacked cobbled climbs like the Côte de Kimihurura and the brutal Mur de Kigali onto 16 laps, the Slovenian went clear with 66 km to race. Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro briefly joined him, but Pogačar soon struck out alone. Evenepoel mounted a desperate chase. But he never closed the gap. Ireland’s Ben Healy edged Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose for bronze.