The 2025 UCI road world championships in Kigali, Rwanda concluded on Sunday with an expected outcome in the elite men’s road race: Tadej Pogačar successfully defending his rainbow jersey. The Slovenian went solo with 67 km remaining. He joins eight other elite men racers with two titles.

The Course

The grueling 267.5-km route didn’t just contain 16 laps of an 13.5-km circuit each with 800-metre Côte de Kigali Golf at 8 percent and cobbled Côte de Kimihurura, it also had an extended lap in the middle that went up Côte de Peage, 6-km Mont Kigali and the vicious little Mur de Kigali.

The culmination of week in Kigali. Image by La FlammeRouge

The Canadian contingent consisted of the same fellows from the elite men’s time trial, Michael Leonard and Laurent Gervais.

The day’s breakaway was an all-European septet. Pogačar’s Slovenia, Remco Evenepoel’s Belgium and Australia kept it in check on the early laps as rider after rider abandoned, one of them 2020 and 2021 champion Julian Alaphilippe. With 9 laps remaining, the gap was 2:30.

Pogacar and Slovenia at the start.

By the start of the “extended dance version” lap with Peage, Mont Kigali and Mur de Kigali, the lead was down to 1:30 and the climbs began to wear down the breakaway’s numbers. Mont Kigali found only Frenchman Julien Bernard out front. He was done for by the peak. Pogačar and Juan Ayuso accelerated over the top and Isaac del Toro joined in.

Pogacar and Ayuso rip it up over the top of Mont Kigali.

Ayuso couldn’t hang on the Mur de Kigali. Behind the Slovenian and the Mexican UAE-Emirates riders was a chase containing Primož Roglič, Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz and a dozen others, while Evenepoel was in Group 3. The two chase group merged. Italy, Australia and Belgium all tried to yank back the dynamic duo.

With five laps remaining Evenepoel was frustrated in his desire to get a new machine.

Evenepoel was not impressed.

With 66 km to race, Pogačar went solo. Six kilometres later his gap was a minute over Evenepoel, Hindley, Tom Pidcock, Mattias Skjelmose and Ben Healy. Hindley and Pidcock eventually faded back. Despite its best efforts, the trio couldn’t bring back the Slovenian. The Belgian lit out after Pogačar on his own.

Skjelmose and Healy battled it out for the podium on the final lap, the Irishman dropping the Dane on Côte de Kigali Golf. Healy is the first Irishman on the podium since Sean Kelly in 1989.

Next year’s Worlds are in Montréal.

2025 UCI Road World Championships, Elite Men’s Road Race
Gold) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenian) 6:21:20
Silver) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) +1:28
Bronze) Ben Healy (Ireland) +2:16