{"id":372319,"date":"2025-12-28T04:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T04:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372319\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T04:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T04:41:12","slug":"who-beat-tadej-pogacar-in-2025-the-very-short-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372319\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Beat Tadej Poga\u010dar in 2025? The Very Short List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated December 27, 2025 09:24AM<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> was on another unstoppable tear in 2025.<\/p>\n

He seemingly had everyone\u2019s number in every race he started. More records fell, he won another Tour de France<\/a> yellow, and he finished off another season No. 1 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

With 20 wins on the season, including a second straight rainbow jersey and a record-tying fifth Il Lombardia crown, he was seemingly invincible.<\/p>\n

Yet on a few occasions this season, Poga\u010dar did get beaten<\/a>. It\u2019s not as if the Slovenian is suddenly mortal or if his rivals figured out the Poga\u010dar code.<\/p>\n

It took master tacticians, once-in-a-lifetime rides, or freak errors to topple the 21st Century GOAT.<\/p>\n

From San Remo to Roubaix, Siena to Kigali, these were the handful of days when someone \u2014 or something \u2014 earned the right to be called a Pog-Slayer.<\/p>\n

Here they are:<\/p>\n

A Tuscan thorn bush bloodies (but doesn\u2019t beat) Poga\u010dar at Strade Bianche
\n\"Poga\u010darPoga\u010dar crashed but still won Strade Bianche. (Photo: Chris Auld\/Velo)<\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock<\/a> was a temporary thorn in Poga\u010dar\u2019s side through the final of Strade Bianche. A roadside bush delivered multiple thorns into Pogi\u2019s white-shorted rump a little longer, however.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s torn-up skin and shredded rainbow apparel looked like a pincushion after he overshot a descending corner<\/a> in the final of the sterrato classic in March. The uncharacteristic error sent Poga\u010dar cartwheeling into a ditch, only for his trajectory to be broken by a very prickly bush.<\/p>\n

Sadly for Pidcock, a bunch of thorns didn\u2019t hold back Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

The bloodied-up world champion and his barbed backside hopped back onto the bike and blew the Brit away 20km from the line.<\/p>\n

According to team staff, there were \u201cdozens and dozens\u201d of thorns<\/a> still embedded in Pogi\u2019s skin after he\u2019d rushed to the finish in Siena. His triumphant final solo was no doubt hastened by the urge to find a good set of tweezers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jim Cotton<\/p>\n

Outfoxed by Van der Poel down the Via Roma
\n\"MilanVan der Poel outfoxed Poga\u010dar in an epic battle at San Remo. (Photo: Chris Auld\/Velo)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar ripped up the script for San Remo in what\u2019s called the easiest monument to finish and the hardest to win, and dared to attack on the Cipressa. No one\u2019s managed to win from there since 1990s, but Poga\u010dar is all about defying convention.<\/p>\n

The problem was, he found company in Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> and Filippo Ganna, and the table was set for one of the most epic San Remo finales ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trio held off the stunned peloton, carrying a 33-second lead onto the base of the Poggio. That\u2019s where the action usually lights up, and Pogi doubled down with a string of searing attacks. Ganna was gapped, but Van der Poel answered and even countered near the top of the Poggio.<\/p>\n

Ganna descended like a bullet to claw back contact just before the Via Roma. Van der Poel led out the sprint from 300 meters out and dared the others to come around. They could not. Poga\u010dar\u2019s audacity was answered by Van der Poel\u2019s racing acumen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Van der Poel is perhaps the only rider who consistently is able to beat Poga\u010dar, at least on favored terrain like San Remo.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew Hood<\/p>\n

Paris Roubaix dream ended with one corner bien cuit \u2026
\n\"ParisPoga\u010dar would overcook a corner late in the race that cost him a chance at victory. (Photo: Chris Auld\/Velo)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar and his impossible Paris-Roubaix<\/a> dream unraveled in an instant with one corner too many.<\/p>\n

Pogi was riding shoulder to shoulder with MVDP deep into his odds-defying debut at the \u201cHell of the North.\u201d Looking flawless, Pogacar was snubbing his nose convention to try to become the first Tour de France winner to win Paris-Roubaix since Bernard Hinault.<\/p>\n

Things were looking dreamy when the race darkened into a nightmare in a fraction of a second. It wasn\u2019t a puncture or a high-speed crash, but rather a mistake in misjudging a corner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the race entering the final hour, the pair were off the front, but Poga\u010dar either misjudged the line or perhaps was following the line of a motorbike that was edging off the side of the course.<\/p>\n

It all happened on a right-hand bend on the cobbles of Pont-Thibault \u00e0 Ennevelin with about 38km to go. Carrying full speed into Sector 9, Poga\u010dar overcooked the corner, got tangled up in the mud and turf, and tumbled off the bike. No high-speed impact or bloody injuries, but just a momentary wobble that cost him the race.<\/p>\n

MVDP kept charging at the front \u2014 there\u2019s no waiting in a scenario like this \u2014 and Poga\u010dar had to roll in with second.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to say what might have happened. Van der Poel seemed to be on the limit<\/a> and might have cracked deeper into the race. But there are no hypothetical replays in cycling.<\/p>\n

Of all the things that stopped him in 2025, this one was a turn taken too fast.<\/p>\n

Chalk up another one for Van der Poel as the peloton\u2019s most reliable Pog-Slayer. (AH)<\/p>\n

Skjelmose downs two kings in one at Amstel Gold Race
\n\"PogacarSkjelmose is all smiles after winning Amstel Gold Race. (Photo: Tim De Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Mattias Skjelmose<\/a> was the star of perhaps the most \u201cWTF\u201d finales of all men\u2019s cycling in 2025.<\/p>\n

Long, lean Skjelly outkicked both Poga\u010dar and Remco Evenepoel at Amstel Gold Race<\/a> after a Pogi long-bomb fell short.<\/p>\n

For Skjelmose, it really was two for the price of one in the Giant Killing stakes.<\/p>\n

And both his victims were left somewhat aggrieved.<\/p>\n

Skjelmose reaped the ultimate reward from a ride on the \u201cRemco Express\u201d through the final of the hilly classic.<\/p>\n

When Pogi attacked around 50km out, Skjelmose and the TT king \u201ccollaborated\u201d in the chase. If Remco doing 90 percent of the work counts as collaborating, that is.<\/p>\n

The pair somehow reeled in \u201cKing Pog\u201d 8km from the line, and Skjelmose finished the job in a 3-up sprint.<\/p>\n

Then only 24, Skjelmose couldn\u2019t believe it either<\/a>. (JC)<\/p>\n

Van Aert buried him on Montmartre
\n\"VanVan Aert risked everything to drop Poga\u010dar to win in Paris. (Photo: Chris Auld\/Velo)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar had the yellow jersey in a bag and only needed to coast around the Montmartre circuit to win a fourth title.<\/p>\n

But of course, Poga\u010dar was never going to do that. And with hundreds of thousands of fans lining the roads, he wasn\u2019t about to let them down.<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert<\/a> had something else to prove. After being riddled by injury going back to the 2024 Vuelta, the Belgian superstar had been on a futile chase to win across the entire Tour. Paris was his final chance, and he and Poga\u010dar lit up the front, and the crowds went nuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sport directors and UAE managers were chewing their nails down to bony stubs as Van Aert and Poga\u010dar traded blows on the wet, treacherous roads, so slick that Tour officials neutralized the times on the closing circuit.<\/p>\n

Van Aert kept piling on, and Poga\u010dar finally eased off the gas. The Belgian had his win, and Poga\u010dar had the jersey.<\/p>\n

And the fans went wild on the Monmartre mayhem. \u00a0(AH)<\/p>\n

Evenepoel serves Poga\u010dar a dose of his own medicine in Kigali
\n\"EvenepoelEvenepoel powered to victory in Rwanda at the time trial world championships. (Photo: Chris Auld\/Velo)<\/p>\n

The cheers of beered-up fans back in Belgium echoed all the way over to Kigali this September when Remco Evenepoel caught and dropped Poga\u010dar<\/a> at the world championship time trial.<\/p>\n

After starting two and a half minutes back on King Pog, Evenepoel had rocketed through the hills of Kigali like a Pogi-seeking missile. He picked off his victims one-by-one until he bridged to Poga\u010dar and his lime green skinsuit as the Slovenian labored up the cobblestone C\u00f6te de Kimihurura at around 1km to go.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar kept close to Evenepoel\u2019s wheel<\/a> for a few seconds before \u201cthe aero bullet\u201d sent beers and frites flying all through Belgium as he peeled away for his third straight TT world title.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel served Poga\u010dar a dose of his own medicine that day in Kigali.<\/p>\n

The memory must have been some antidote for Remco when Poga\u010dar spiked him three times in the three following weekends. (JC)<\/p>\n