Tadej Pogačar wins quite a lot. This season alone the Slovenian hit the Classics hard and the Tour de France even harder for his fourth yellow jersey, closing out 2025 with a World Championship road race defence and a fifth consecutive Il Lombardia crown.
With such strength and no signs of slowing down, how on earth do you solve a problem like Pogačar? We’ve had a look at the ways in which a select few riders were able to beat him this year, how they did it and the one-day races to target for next season.
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Breaking free
A.S.O./Billy Ceusters
Throughout UAE Team Emirates XRG’s record-breaking season, Pogačar charged away to 18 wins and topped the general classification standings at the UAE Tour, Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de France.
Of his spoils, a whopping 64.7% came from the art of a solo attacks. It’s something he has down to a T. Once he kicks away and fades into the distance, reeling him back in is a mammoth task. Pogačar broke free for his Classics victories at Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. His rampages continued in one-day races and later in stage races at the Dauphiné and Tour. It was harder to shake off people completely in the tough back-half of the Tour de France, but he managed to launch a 11.1km solo charge on the Hautacam on Stage 12.
His next best method was through a small group sprint. This occurred four times for 23.5% of his wins, with half of those at the Tour. Elsewhere he also had a punchy final kilometre attack at La Flèche Wallonne and a time-trial win in the mountains at the Tour.
Breakaways tend to be the most successful way to escape Pogačar’s clutches, with half of his top five finishes thanks to breakaways.
He was defeated in four time-trials in 2025. Remco Evenepoel won three of these at the Dauphiné, Tour and World Championships. As for sprints, Pogačar was downed three times – twice by Mathieu van der Poel at Milan-San Remo and the second stage of the Tour. He also had one near-miss thanks to his teammate Brandon McNulty at GP Montréal with Pogačar sitting back to gift the American the victory.
Plan of attack(s)
A.S.O./Billy Ceusters
How to beat the potential future GOAT unsurprisingly differs whether you’re a direct rival or not. If you’re a stage hunter in a team that isn’t tracking down the maillot jaune, then congratulations! Breakaways are the most fruitful way to win a race Pogačar is in.
Five of his seven close defeats came at the Tour courtesy of riders who weren’t GC threats: Thymen Arensman twice, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Ben O’Connor and Wout van Aert. In every circumstance, the rider was allowed to slip away due to not being a threat on general classification and all of those apart from Van Aert came in the mountains.
For a rival, it’s much harder. There’s no wiggle room to allow someone with the pedigree of Jonas Vingegaard to go up the road unless something has really gone wrong with Pogačar. The second most common way to defeat him is in a sprint, which has worked well for Van der Poel, who twice beat the Slovenian to the line last season, but this is much more likely in Classics or Classics-like stages where riders with such strong sprints can make it to the end.
The one-day races to circle
Xavier Pereyron
It’s surprising, but there are still some races Pogačar is yet to win. These big draws could be up for grabs no matter how talented the World Champion is.
2025 marked Pogačar’s debut Paris-Roubaix and while he couldn’t manage the win, it was due to crashing after coming into a corner too hot that Van der Poel slipped away. He’ll undoubtably cross paths with the Alpecin-Deceuninck man on the cobbles again next season.
Milan-San Remo is the other big race that Pogačar is still chasing. The course design is his biggest flaw and it’s imperative for teams to use this in their favour. The relative ‘ease’ of the route makes it much harder to get clear. His attack on the Cipressa was expected this year but he couldn’t quite leave Van der Poel behind and ultimately sprinted to third.
If your name isn’t Mathieu van der Poel and you’re lining up against Pogačar in 2026, you’d better get in a breakaway or be a bunch sprinter.
