Category: Cycling

A fifth successive Il Lombardia triumph completed another dominant season for the Slovenian, while on the women’s tour Pauline Ferrand-Prévot divided opinion

Tadej Pogacar’s command of world cycling now seems limitless. The Slovenian ended 2025 as he began it, dominating a coveted Italian classic, Il Lombardia, to win the “race of the falling leaves” for the fifth time straight.

The 27-year-old had started his European season by winning the Tuscan gravel race, Strade Bianche. He closed it having matched Italian icon Fausto Coppi’s record of five Lombardy wins and Eddy Merckx’s achievement of winning three “monument” races, the Tour de France and the world road race title in the same year.

• Derek Gee: ‘Decision weighed heavily on conscience’

• Team says case will go before arbitral board of UCI

Canadian cyclist Derek Gee says he is facing a damages claim of €30m from his former team Israel-Premier Tech after ending his contract over what he described as “personal beliefs”.

The 28-year-old finished fourth overall at this year’s Giro d’Italia, but left Israel-Premier Tech shortly before September’s Vuelta a España, a race which was subject to pro-Palestinian protests linked to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist details the grit and sacrifice needed to succeed and says Ineos are held to a different standard than other teams

“I’m pretty laidback and don’t take myself too seriously off the bike,” Geraint Thomas says as, in retirement, the 2018 Tour de France winner reflects on the contrast between his relaxed public persona and his real self. “I think people assume I’m like that in every aspect of my life. But when it came to training and racing I took it really seriously. I did everything I could to reach my very best and always go as deep as possible. I had that determination to perform.”

The 39-year-old Welshman pauses as he thinks of his old contemporaries Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins: “Cav was obviously a lot more outspoken. I didn’t tend to tell people what I was hoping to do. And Brad’s spoken recently about how he had troubles in the past while he portrayed the whole rock-star image.

• Pogacar reclaims rainbow jersey he won last year

• Remco Evenepoel second, Ireland’s Ben Healy third

Tadej Pogacar lit up Kigali’s climbs with a trademark long-range attack to claim a second consecutive men’s road race world title on Sunday.

There was an air of inevitability surrounding the event in Rwanda as the Slovenian cemented his legacy among cycling’s all-time greats. Pogacar triumphed as the world championships were staged in Africa for the first time, with hundreds of thousands cheering from the roadside.

• Unfancied Vallieres breaks clear on final climb

• Fisher-Black and García complete podium

Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres took a surprise gold in the women’s road race at the Road World Championships after a decisive attack on the final climb on Saturday in Kigali. The 24-year-old was in a lead group with New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black and Spain’s Mavi García near the end of the 164km slog on a hilly circuit in the Rwandan capital when she burst clear.

Powering up the ascent towards the finish line, Vallieres stayed clear of Fisher-Black, who came home second with García third. Vallieres won by 23sec to become Canada’s first road champion. Fisher-Black was second with Garcia, trying to become the oldest road world champion at 41, third, 26sec back. Switzerland’s Elise Chabbey was fourth at 41sec. The favourites trailed home in the chasing group after being caught out and leaving their response too late.

• Swiss Reusser beats Kigali field by 51.89sec to take gold

• Belgium’s Evenepoel passes Pogacar on way to victory

Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser overcame illness this year to win the women’s individual time trial at the cycling Road World Championships in Kigali on Sunday, while Remco Evenepoel of Belgium won a third successive men’s individual time trial title.

Reusser finished 51.89sec quicker than the rest of the field for a dominant victory, taking the rainbow jersey in a time of 43min 09.34sec around the 31.2km course in Rwanda’s capital on the opening day of the week-long championships, being hosted in Africa for the first time.

First road world championships in Africa should be cause for celebration – instead the sport is mired in controversy

Africa’s first hosting of the road world championships should be a moment of celebration for cycling and the continent but Rwanda instead finds itself the backdrop to a sport mired in infighting and controversy.

The Vuelta a España ended on Sunday after three weeks of racing characterised by mass pro-Palestinian demonstrations against the presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team.

• Protests forced cancellation of final stage in Madrid

• Dismay at Israel-Premier Tech’s refusal to withdraw

World Tour cycling teams may refuse to race against Israel-Premier Tech following the multiple protests ­during the Vuelta a España that exploded into street violence in central Madrid on Sunday.

Sources within rival teams have expressed their dismay to the Guardian at the refusal of the team to ­withdraw from the Vuelta and the lack of protection from the International Cycling Union (UCI) for its own commercial and sporting interests.

• Organisers cancel stage and declare Vingegaard winner

• Protesters threw barricades into the street on Gran Vía

The final stage of the Vuelta a España was abandoned in chaotic and violent scenes, after groups of pro-Palestine protesters swamped the finish line area and presentation podium in central Madrid on Sunday.

As huge crowds engulfed the finish area, the race leader Jonas Vingegaard, his Visma Lease-a-bike team and the rest of the peloton were forced to turn back from the city centre, with more than 55km still to race on stage 21. In an official statement, the Vuelta organisers said: “For security reasons, stage 21 of La Vuelta has been ended early. There will be no podium ceremony.”

• Pidcock: ‘It’s the biggest performance of my career’

• Leader takes 1:16 advantage into Sunday’s final stage

Tom Pidcock stands to finish on the podium of the Vuelta a España on Sunday after surviving the final mountain test as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to take a stage 20 win that all but seals his overall victory.

Pidcock, defending an advantage of 39sec over Jai Hindley, wrestled his bike up gradients in excess of 20% to the summit of the Bola del Mundo – the last 3km of which were ridden on broken concrete in a brutal test of stamina at the end of three weeks.

• Belgian rider wins his third stage of 2025 race

• Jonas Vingegaard adds four seconds to overall lead

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen sprinted clear at the end of stage 19 to seal his third win at this year’s Vuelta a España on Friday while Jonas Vingegaard added four seconds to his overall advantage over Joño Almeida.

After 160km of relatively flat riding in west central Spain, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen burst to the front near the finish and never looked like being caught. Denmark’s Mads Pedersen was the first to make his move but could not hold off Philipsen and he crossed the line in second place with Venezuela’s Orluis Aular third.