Pogacar<\/a> would attack with 100km to go like he did in Switzerland last year, not on a route that was 270km long with 35 climbs and 5,500m of elevation, but he simply cannot help himself, even on a parcours so hard that 135 riders abandoned and only 30 reached the finish. <\/p>\n\u201c[It was the] most unenjoyable race of the year, it was so hard,\u201d said Tom Pidcock, Great Britain\u2019s sole finisher in tenth place. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel so good in the start and then I was coming round and into the race and then I completely blew and it was survival to the finish. It was absolutely brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Pogacar\u2019s Slovenian team-mates set a hard pace up the long, dragging Mont Kigali, he took over and attacked. Only Spain\u2019s Juan Ayuso could go with him initially and Evenepoel was forced to drop back. As they topped the climb and settled into the descent, Mexico\u2019s Isaac del Toro joined his two UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mates. <\/p>\n
But soon the trio were on the Mur de Kigali, an infamous 300m, steep and cobbled climb. Del Toro put down the pace which Pogacar happily matched but Ayuso, who leaves UAE for Lidl-Trek in 2026, was dropped \u2014 he could do no more. With 66km to go, it was then Del Toro\u2019s turn. The 21-year-old Mexican \u2014 the apprentice to Pogacar\u2019s master \u2014 had nothing left to give, and couldn\u2019t keep up with Pogacar\u2019s infernal pace. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the parcours was designed for [an early attack],\u201d Pogacar said after the race. \u201cI was hoping a small group would form like we did with Juan and Del Toro. I was like, \u2018This the dream, no?\u2019 To ride as far as possible as a trio. But Juan had a problem on the cobbles and Del Toro had some stomach problems in the race so I was left alone quite early so I was solo like last year just fighting with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Belgian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/4e36d547-34b5-4e03-8d2b-86b63192aed1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Healy, right, with Evenepoel and Pogacar, took bronze \u2014 the first elite world championship medal won by an Irishman in 36 years<\/p>\n
SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n
It was then a straight battle between Pogacar and the chasers behind, a small group that included Evenepoel, Pidcock and Ireland\u2019s Ben Healy. After Evenepoel changed bikes twice, clearly unhappy with his saddle, he led the chase and one by one the group reduced. The course had taken its toll and it was Evenepoel who was left to chase Pogacar alone \u2014 in reality, he was riding for second place. <\/p>\n
The Slovenian never once looked in trouble, he never once looked tired. He looked behind him as he approached the finish line, as if someone might have somehow sneaked up on him, but he had plenty of time to raise his arms as he crossed the line. \u201cIt was an incredible experience altogether,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cLet\u2019s say it was a success for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evenepoel took second place 1min 28sec behind Pogacar, with Healy in third, 2min 16sec back. In doing so, the 25-year-old, who won a stage of this year\u2019s Tour de France and wore the Yellow Jersey for two days, won Ireland\u2019s first elite world championship men\u2019s medal since Sean Kelly in 1989 and showed once again that he deserves to be considered a real threat in the biggest races. <\/p>\n
Road World Championships elite road race results<\/p>\n
1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) 6hrs 21mins 20secs
2 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) +1m 28s
3 Ben Healy (Ire) +2m 16s
4 Mattias Skjelmose (Den) +2m 53s
5 Tom Skujins (Lat) +6m 41s
6 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) +6m 47s
7 Isaac del Toro (Mex) +6m 47s
8 Juan Ayuso (Spa) +6m 47s
9 Afonso Eulalio (Por) +7min 6secs
10 Tom Pidcock (GB) +9min 5secs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes in sport, you have to sit back and reflect on what you have just witnessed. In cycling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-167204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Isaac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/9ae78104-49af-44b4-82a4-8ab76620f16c.jpg\")
<\/p>\n