Updated December 15, 2025 08:44AM
Sure, it may be a cliché to hail the reigning Tour de France champions as our “Best Pro Cyclists of the Year,” but you know what … we’re going to do it anyway.
Just look at what Tadej Pogačar and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot achieved this year.
Pogačar won three monuments, a fourth Tour de France, a second world title and so much more in his bloodthirsty stampede through pro cycling. Do we need to say any more?
Meanwhile, Ferrand-Prévot brought a clinical precision to her first full season back on the road since 2018. She “only” won four times, but each win was big. Debut victories at both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift? Félicitations Pauline!
But of course, 2025 was so much more than the Pogi and PFP show. So, without further ado, here are our top riders of the year.
The best male pro cyclists of 2025
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG), 27
(Photo: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
Nobody will be surprised to see this guy nominated for Velo’s rider of the year.
Pogačar backed up his ridiculous 2024 season with another year of ruthless dominance in 2024. The supreme Slovenian romped to season-opening wins at the UAE Tour and Strade Bianche, and didn’t stop until October when he won a record-equalling fifth time at Il Lombardia.
Oh, and did we forget to mention he won a second Tour of Flanders, fourth Tour de France and second road world title along the way?
That Pogačar had the swagger to take it to, and nearly beat, MVDP on the infernal cobbles of Paris-Roubaix was the cherry on top of a 20-win season.
Pogačar cemented his status as cycling’s new GOAT in 2025, no matter what a certain Mr. Merckx says.
> New Data Analysis Confirms Pogačar as a Physiological GOAT
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), 25
(Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)
You gotta feel for Remco Evenepoel.
If Tadej Pogačar wasn’t around, the Belgian’s palmarès from 2025 would look a lot different. Belgium’s “aero bullet” finished second to Pogačar three times in three weeks this autumn.
But don’t be fooled by Remco’s silver triple at the road and European road race championships and Il Lombardia. He also won a third world championship time trial and European TT gold in the same period.
Evenepoel’s awesome autumn capped a rollercoaster season of time trial dominance, classics victories, injury setbacks, and a devastating DNF at the Tour de France.
Sure, Evenepoel’s season was far from flawless.
But the trajectory was overwhelmingly upward. The 25-year-old underlined his status as one of cycling’s big three and became the time trialist of his generation.
In fact, Remco showed so much promise this year that it convinced Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe to lure him away from Quick-Step with the second biggest paycheck in road cycling. Red Bull’s “Project Remco” will be the narrative to follow in the new year.
>Evenepoel Now Second-Highest Paid Rider in Pro Cycling with Red Bull Payday
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), 29
Mads Pedersen led Lidl-Trek from the very front this season.
The piledriver Dane won stages and the points jerseys of the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, and pulled a monster solo at Gent-Wevelgem that Tadej Pogačar would have been proud of.
That third victory in Wevelgem was the highlight of what was a mad spring campaign for Mads – the 29-year-old hit the podium at Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and E3 Saxo Classic. Only generational talents Mathieu van der Poel and Pogačar could stop him.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Pedersen in 2025? His ability to inspire and motivate.
When he was at the startline, Lidl-Trek stepped up multiple levels to control the race for its Danish ace. Full commitment, full confidence.
Lidl-Trek put Pedersen into the elite club of riders with a “forever contract” this season. It’s easy to see why the team doesn’t want to let him go.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), 29
(Photo: Chris Auld)
It seems like Jonas Vingegaard couldn’t win a one-day race if his life depended on it, but the Dane is pretty darn good at stage racing.
Vingegaard made it look easy for much of the way through his three-week victory at the Vuelta a España, scored an early GC win in the Algarve, and finished second to only you-know-who at the Tour de France and the Critérium du Dauphiné.
With eight second-place finishes behind Pogačar in 2025, Vingegaard might be wondering “what if?” this winter.
One year after his devastating crash in the Basque Country, Vinny was playing catch-up through the spring after he lost weeks to a concussion sustained at Paris-Nice.
That Vingegaard rode himself into top form through the final phase of the Tour suggests there could be a proper yellow jersey battle in 2026 – provided he keeps it upright before the grand départ.
>‘Jonas Can Be Even Better in 2026’: Vuelta Win Sees Vingegaard Back on Top
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 30
(Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Mathieu van der Poel didn’t win often in 2025, but he certainly made it count when he did.
How’s this for a victory haul?
The Samyn, E3 Saxo Classic, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and stages at the Tour de France and Renewi Tour. And that’s after he tied the male record for elite cyclocross world titles. Four days in the Tour’s yellow jersey further sweetens the deal.
Van der Poel’s 4 wins in 5 races at the 2025 spring classics underlined what was already obvious – he’s the best classics racer of the generation, if not of this century.
That Van der Poel was one of the few riders who could trouble Tadej Pogačar in 2025 is surely worth an award in itself.
>Only Mathieu van der Poel Can Stop Tadej Pogačar from Completing Pro Cycling
Men’s honorable mentions
Tom Pidcock
Ben Healy
Wout van Aert
Quinn Simmons
Think there are some notable omissions from our list of “best male pro cyclists?” Check back for our “breakout riders” later this week!
The best female pro cyclists of 2025
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), 33
(Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot didn’t waste any time in 2025.
“PFP” stunned the world by completing her mission to win the Tour de France Femmes on her very first year trying.
Not impressive enough?
Ferrand-Prévot claimed the maillot jaune in what was her first grand tour in 10 years, and only 8 months into her full-time return to road racing.
Ferrand-Prevot’s Tour de France title was the headline story of her season.
But it shouldn’t overshadow her audacious victory at Paris-Roubaix Femmes – a race she wasn’t even scheduled to start. Her cobblestone triumph this April was the exclamation-mark on a spring campaign that nearly also brought victories at Strade Bianche and Tour of Flanders, too.
That Ferrand-Prévot won two insanely different but equally huge races this season only reinforced her versatility.
PFP had already crushed everyone at cyclocross and mastered mountain biking. Now, after already winning a road world title in 2014, she just went and “completed” the pavement, too.
> Power Analysis: Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour de France Femmes Domination
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx Protime), 26
(Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes can easily lay claim to the most astonishing record of 2025. The Ferrari-fast Dutchwoman didn’t lose a bunch sprint all year.
Wiebes amassed 25 wins in just 51 race-days this year. That 50 percent win rate brought Wiebes more than twice the victories of the next-best in the women’s peloton, and more than any of her colleagues in the men’s peloton, too.
Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser were second-winningest on the women’s side with 11 wins each.
Wiebes harvested victories with plenty of room to spare, all year.
But despite her brutal muscling power, she’s not just a straight-line pedal smasher.
She crushed gruelling cobblestone races like Gent Wevelgem, mastered the echelons to win at the UAE Tour, and wasn’t held back by a little off-road either.
Wiebes finished her all-conquering season with a victory at the UCI gravel worlds that neatly bookmarked her day 1 win in the UAE.
And how did Wiebes win gravel worlds? In a sprint, duh.
Wiebes has 118 wins on her palmarès and she’s only 26. A double-century is well within her capacity.
> ‘A Dream Season’: Staggering Domination by Lorena Wiebes in Unprecedented Simac Ladies Tour Showing
Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), 29
(Photo by Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)
Just crown Demi Vollering the queen of Spanish cycling, already.
The Dutchwoman rampaged to four GC victories in four Spanish tours in the first half of the season.
It was utter stage-racing supremacy.
Throw a second victory at Strade Bianche, and podium finishes at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, and Omloop Nieuwsblad in there, and Demi was the woman to beat, all the way to August.
Being beaten by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at the Tour leaves a blot on Vollering’s season season. But it shouldn’t define it. The 29-year-old was undone by a crash on stage 3 and victim of a physiological one-of-a kind in the Alps.
And while nobody really cares about UCI rankings, Vollering went and won that, too.
This was Vollering’s first season of her two-year deal with FDJ-Suez. The French team will be more than happy with its record-breaking investment.
> European Road Champs: Demi Vollering Scoops First Major Championship Title With Inspired Solo
Marlen Reusser (Movistar), 34
(Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Marlen Reusser shook off the impacts of long COVID, found her climbing legs, and crushed nearly everybody in 2025.
The 34-year-old won stage races, finished a close second at the Giro Women, and didn’t lose an ITT all year as she steamrollered through the best season of her career.
And it could have been a lot more.
Reusser was only 18 seconds behind Elisa Longo Borghini after 25 hours of racing at the Giro. Just a few weeks later, a bout of sickness denied her the chance to chase the podium at the Tour de France Femmes.
Reusser’s stage 1 DNF at Le Tour was one of the disappointments of the season.
But that didn’t hold her back.
The powerhouse Swiss was one of the riders of the autumn.
Reusser obliterated both the world and European championship TTs, lit up Kigali’s mixed relay TTT, and put the motor into the chase at the worlds road race.
GC superstars Demi Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Elisa Longo Borghini will consider themselves warned.
> UCI Road World Championships: Reusser Stuns Vollering and Van der Breggen to Win Time Trial Crown
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), 34
(Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
On first thought, you might wonder what Elisa Longo Borghini is doing on this list.
But that’s sort of the point.
In 2025, ELB just kept doing what she’s been doing for years – quietly racking up win after win.
A successful title defense at the Giro Women capped a season that also saw the Italian attacker harvest victories at the UAE Tour, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl, and Tre Valli Varesine.
Sure, Longo Borghini didn’t conquer a major classic in 2025 like she has done before – she crashed out of Tour of Flanders, couldn’t start Paris-Roubaix due to concussion, was nowhere in Liège, and was stymied by negative racing at worlds. But she still scored the most single-season wins of her career and inspired her new UAE ADQ team to its best year along the way.
Longo Borghini set herself a high benchmark in recent years. She definitely did enough to match that in 2025.
>Giro d’Italia Women: Longo Borghini Seals Overall as Lippert Snags Final Stage
Women’s honorable mentions
Kim Le Court
Mischa Bredewold
Marianne Vos
Think there are some notable omissions from our list of “best female pro cyclists?” Check back for our “breakout riders” later this week!
So there we have it, our top riders of the year. Who would you have included? Let us know in the comments!