ANALYSIS | What happened in the past five editions of the European Championships road race?

Today we will see who will become the 2025 European Championships men’s road race winner. Will Tadej Pogacar add to his 2 world titles, or will Remco Evenepoel complete his set of world, Olympic and European titles on the road and time trial bike? Or, can Jonas Vingegaard upset the one day racers in a rare outing outside a stage race? Before we find out about today’s race, lets find out what happened in the past five editions of the European Championships.

The 2024 European Championships returned a sprinter’s script: 222.8km from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt on fast roads that neutered most long-range moves. After late skirmishes fizzled, Belgium massed for a textbook lead-out and Tim Merlier finished the job, outsprinting Olav Kooij and Madis Mihkels to become the first Belgian man to claim the elite road title.

What made it memorable wasn’t only the partisan roar in Hasselt, but the jeopardy: Merlier said his chain briefly jumped inside the final 300 meters, a hiccup he rode through to keep the jersey at home. The officially published results underlined just how finely balanced it was, a blanket finish after four and a half hours at nearly 48 km/h, with Jasper Philipsen fourth and Alexander Kristoff fifth. Taken together, the day validated Belgium’s decision to centre everything on a pure bunch kick, and it burnished Merlier’s reputation as the sport’s most ruthlessly efficient closer in flat finales. The European stripes, for once, were won without climbs, cobbles or chaos, just speed, organization and nerve when it mattered most.

Drenthe’s men’s road race was a study in attrition: wind-bitten lanes, gravelly sectors and repeated ascents of the Col du VAM, the landfill-turned-berg that has become Dutch cycling’s cruel little amphitheatre.

France’s Christophe Laporte lit the fuse with 12km to go, prising open a gap on the run toward the final VAM passages. Behind, Wout van Aert and Olav Kooij, both riding in rival national colours but fresh from Jumbo-Visma domination that autumn, organized a desperate chase. They never quite made it. Laporte crested with seconds to spare and held the line in a reduced, breathless finale to take the jersey; Van Aert and Kooij completed the podium. Tactically it was perfect France: mark the danger, surf the surges, then pick one confident acceleration when everyone else is in the red. For Laporte, it capped a personal arc from elite super-domestique to closer in his own right; for the field, it proved how a short, steep, repeatable climb can make a 200 km road race feel like a one-hour cyclo-cross.

On paper, Murnau - Munich (209km) looked tailor-made for fast men, and the peloton rode it that way. A couple of brave late breaks were hoovered up well before the city circuits, and the final kilometres became an arms race of lead-out trains. The Netherlands played it to the letter for Fabio Jakobsen: patient positioning, calm on the corners, then maximum torque in the last 200 meters. Jakobsen surged past Tim Merlier and Arnaud Démare to take the European jersey, confirming both his top-end speed and the Dutch squad’s drill-sergeant discipline in flat finales. If Munich lacked the chaos of crosswinds or cobbles, it compensated with a clinic in timing, hold the wheel, avoid the elbows, open the sprint when the air is clean.

Trento offered a hybrid test: an opening run through the Valle dei Laghi, then eight laps of a 13.2 km city circuit with the Povo climb, steep enough to grind a selection but not so savage as to rule out a kick. Belgium tried to dictate through Remco Evenepoel, whose insistence on hard pace and repeated surges forced a definitive split.

But Sonny Colbrelli, in the form of his life, refused to crack on the final ascents. The result was a two-up drag race in the last kilometre, and a masterclass in patience from Colbrelli, who launched late and clean to take gold, with Benoît Cosnefroy rolling in for bronze over a minute back. Over 179.2km and 3,400+ vertical metres, the race rewarded riders who could both suffer and sprint. It was the closest Evenepoel has come to European road race glory, although that may change today…

In the pandemic-compressed 2020 calendar, Plouay stepped in as emergency host, drawing a punchy elite field onto Brittany’s rolling circuit. Italy arrived with momentum and a simple brief: control the chaos, deliver Giacomo Nizzolo to the final bend, and let the tricolore sprint. It worked to perfection. After a late reshuffle of attacks and counters, the last lap coalesced into a reduced sprint; Nizzolo, fresh off the Italian national title, won with half-a-bike on Arnaud Démare, Pascal Ackermann third. Beyond confirming Nizzolo’s status as Europe’s smoothest drag-strip finisher, the win secured Italy’s third straight men’s European road title after Trentin (2018) and Viviani (2019).