With Il Lombardia concluded, we can pretty much say that the men’s road calendar has come to a close.
After ten months of WorldTour racing, Tadej Pogačar tops the year-end UCI rankings with a staggering 11,680 points. That’s double that of runner-up Jonas Vingegaard and third-placed Mads Pedersen. This biblical haul is almost identical to the 11,655 accrued last year – with just a minor finish on a Tour stage making the difference.
Before the velodromes and muddy fields of Belgium steal all the spotlight, let’s reflect deeper on the 2025 season. Today, we’ll be fielding an all-star team of the eight best riders from 2025. The candidates have been chosen to reflect the general narrative of the season, factoring in 2025 achievements, UCI points and growth from previous years. A nebulous rubric, I know, but it’ll soon become clear.
Just think of this as your team of the year.
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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
Xavier Pereyron
As much as I would have liked to open our selection with an underdog, Tadej Pogačar can’t go unrecognised. The Slovenian claimed a staggering 20 wins through 2025, including a Grand Tour, three Monuments and a rainbow jersey along the way. If he were a one-man team, he’d be ninth in the UCI team rankings, just ahead of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bahrain Victorious.
There’s a strong argument that 2025 is the Slovenian’s best season to date. Yes, he didn’t win the Giro this year, but he picked up an extra Monument title, finished on the podium of all five, while adding new lines to his palmares with the Critérium du Dauphiné and the European Championships. Barely anyone could drop the Tour winner this year, with Wout van Aert the only rider to have dropped Pogi on an uphill ramp in 2025 (sorry Remco, the Worlds time-trial doesn’t count).
Chances are, he’ll manage to find a way to surpass this next year. The Europeans will be on home roads in Ljubljana and the Worlds follow a similar route to the GP Montréal, a race won twice before by the tufty champ.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
Xavier Pereyron
The winner of two points classifications at Grand Tours this year, Mads Pedersen is an easy inclusion to this list. These jerseys top off a spectacular season for the 2019 world champ, who garnered his largest year-end UCI points score to date, finishing in third overall.
The Dane has been a reliable engine in the Classics and sprinting calendar, with victories at stage races, Grand Tours and major one-day races. If it weren’t for Mathieu van der Poel or Tadej Pogačar, it’s likely we’d consider the Lidl-Trek rider as the best Classics rider of the year.
Pedersen can also be a domestique – when he wants to. His climbing has excelled this year, with standout performances in early-season Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a España. So while he’s not the fastest rider in the bunch, he’s certainly one of the most versatile.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
Xavier Pereyron
For the role of out-and-out sprinter, we’ve chosen Jonathan Milan.
Some of you may be up in arms, hollering for Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen – both of whom ended the season with an equal or greater sum of Grand Tour stage victories than Milan. I mean, Merlier has six more wins in 2025, and pipped the Italian on two occasions at the Tour. That said, no sprinter seems more powerful than Jonathan Milan.
The Friulian rider won the green jersey at the Tour, continuing an incredible unbeaten streak in Grand Tour points classifications. Until the Deutschland Tour in August, Milan hadn’t left a stage race without a victory this season. Pair up this reliability with a surprising kick on uphill terrain, mindboggling pure power and a podium finish at Gent-Wevelgem, I have to give this sprinter’s slamdown to the Lidl-Trek man.
While he picked up a similar amount of WorldTour wins last year, a green jersey at the Tour lifts the Italian onto a different level. Next year, he’ll be hoping to add a Monument title to these sprinting feats, with Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix outlined as objectives. Still just 25 years of age, Milan will be hoping to further solidify his place among the golden circle of sprinters.
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
Tim de Waele/Getty Images
UAE Team Emirates XRG might have been hard done by not having more riders on this list. However, at the start of the season, few expected Isaac del Toro to be the squad’s second-highest UCI points scorer and race winner – especially given the company of João Almeida and Juan Ayuso in the roster.
To put it bluntly, Del Toro has bagged an obscene amount of pro wins this year. With 15 under his belt, many of which in Italian one-day races, the youngster has found himself in the top five of the year-end UCI rankings. Add to that, influential roles at the UCI Road World Championships, Strade Bianche and Il Lombardia, and we can further appreciate the UAE rider’s coming of age in 2025.
Perhaps we’re blinded by his youthful promise, but the Mexican has been one of the most exciting riders to watch this year. No period was more fascinating than his phenomenal run at the 2025 Giro d’Italia, where he led the race for two weeks. During the race, he surpassed expectations, overtaking the assumed leader Ayuso during his inspiring stint in the maglia rosa. Who’s to blame for the Finestre blunder is up for debate, but at 21 years of age, he can be forgiven for falling short tactically.
The Mexican is an incredible talent, and we look forward to seeing what he can do in the years to come. However, given how close he is to his superstar teammate Pogačar, I wouldn’t bet against an all-star domestique role being on the cards for Del Toro in the near future. Fingers crossed this is vetoed by someone in the UAE camp.
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Xavier Pereyron
UAE Team Emirates XRG sucked up most of the major stage race titles this year, but not without some challenge for the podium spots. A key character in France this year – not just at the Tour – was Florian Lipowitz. Having to step out of the shadow of the flock of stars at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the German rider was one of the most reliable climbers in a packed field playing second fiddle to a certain Slovenian.
Lipowitz stepped up a notch this year. He podiumed Paris-Nice and Critérium du Dauphiné before his grand Tour de France debut. His resilient style in the mountains yielded a podium finish overall, bettering Red Bull’s best result. A white jersey on top of that, he was impressive in all domains – time-trial, mountains and team leadership. Even among the haze of a potential Roglič bid for glory, Lipowitz pulled through, leaving Red Bull with another Grand Tour candidate to account for next year.
Lipowitz was strong in 2024, but 2025 is no doubt his breakthrough. Without superteam support, and with other riders expected to surpass him – not only Remco Evenepoel – the 25-year-old is inching closer to breaking the Pogačar code.
Cristian Scaroni (XDS-Astana)
Billy Ceusters/Getty Images
A little bit of a curveball here, but we can’t overlook one of the most unexpected breakout stars of 2025. Yes, Cristian Scaroni just slips through to our team of the year list, perhaps due to his unanticipated rise.
After a stellar opening to the 2025 season, Scaroni was briefly ranked number one in the world by the UCI, only to be overtaken once Tadej Pogačar started stretching his legs at the UAE Tour and his early-season tests in Italy. In a year that saw the plucky Italian claim his first Grand Tour stage, GC title and plenty of podium finishes, he concludes the season in 18th place according to the UCI rankings. That’s a 178-place improvement on last year, but also means he surpasses the likes of Simon Yates, Primož Roglič, Biniam Girmay and Tim Merlier.
Scaroni emblemises one of the most captivating narratives of the year – Astana’s relegation survival. Coming into the year, it looked almost mathematically impossible for the team to stay afloat in the WorldTour next year. However, with the likes of Scaroni sweeping up points across the board, Astana have played a blinder in the UCI rankings, finishing the 2025 season in fourth place.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
Xavier Pereyron
Ben Healy has refined his craft as a breakaway specialist. While 2024 saw him step up to the plate in bigger races – including the Olympic Games and UCI Road World Championships – this season saw the Irishman mature his palmares.
He continued to pick up plucky breakaway wins, with a solo victory at Itzulia Basque Country earlier in the year, before stepping onto the podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, improving on his result from his breakout spring in 2023.
Ireland’s Healy performed a clean sweep at the Tour de France, winning a stage, wearing the yellow jersey, cracking the top ten overall as well as a supercombativité award. If the €61,000 prize money cheque wasn’t enough, the EF rider cemented himself as one of the most exciting all-rounders in the bunch, and now one with a proven GC record.
As it goes, Healy overperformed in 2025. He stepped up to the podium of Monuments, the World Championships and lit up the Tour de France. His style was familiar at the head of affairs, with a resilience and willingness to race when many played a pragmatic game in the face of the galacticos.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck)
Xavier Pereyron
Roll your eyes all you want, but Mathieu van der Poel won two Monuments this year. You really didn’t think we’d leave him out, did you?
The Alpecin star claimed a humdinger of a Milan-San Remo, then clinched another E3 victory in preparation for an unsuccessful jab at the Tour of Flanders. Elsewhere, he continued his tyranny at Paris-Roubaix, ending the chances of debutant Pogačar before they even hit the Carrefour de l’Arbre.
He hit pause on the road from there, only resuming once the season returned to France in the summer. He was animated at the Dauphiné, which shows some signs of life before a successful opening week to the Tour, in which he’d win a stage and reclaim the yellow jersey for a fleeting handful of days. While we’ll never know how he would have got on in the points classification or the new Champs-Elysées circuit, Van der Poel was a crucial character for a fair chunk of the year.
It’s just a shame he doesn’t spend more time on the road in between these exploits. It feels as though he’s only becoming elusive as time goes on.
Honourable mentions
Harry Talbot
Making a final selection of eight was far from easy. Some riders had to miss out. Here’s our chance to sing their praises.
Several UAE Team Emirates XRG riders were just snipped off from our final selection. Domestiques Tim Wellens and Jhonathan Narváez were exceptional throughout the year, with the former claiming his first stage victory at the Tour de France just weeks after claiming the Belgian title. João Almeida also enjoyed his best season to date, with a hat-trick of WorldTour stage races prior to a silver medal at the Vuelta.
Several British riders just missed the cut. Tom Pidcock placed his Ineos divorce firmly in the past in a year that saw him claim his first GC victory ahead of a premier Grand Tour podium at the Vuelta. Who’d have thought? Likewise, Oscar Onley could have a strong case, given his standout Tour de France and Tour de Suisse. Matt Brennan was also close to the mark, but I expect his 2026 season will surpass what was already an extraordinary year.
A divisive omission within the Cyclist team, Jonas Vingegaard has been pushed onto the bench. The Dane’s season wasn’t quite as standout as previous years, with no major victories before reaching the start of the Vuelta. There, he managed to bag a much-needed Grand Tour title. However, this was more than expected for a man with two Tours under his belt. Despite plenty of talk about wattage and climbing times, it doesn’t seem as though his level has increased greatly since 2024. The same could be said for another nearlyman: Remco Evenepoel.
If this has got your interest piqued, we’ve got another all-star VIII to come for the women’s peloton later this week.
