OPINION | Pogacar, Yates, Van der Poel: 5 of the best moments of the 2025 cycling season

Some seasons feel like a highlight reel, whilst others can sometimes pass by and be easily forgotten. 2025 falls into the highlight reel category for cycling, thanks to countless dramatic and teer-jerking headlines. One British rider redeemed himself in this most emphatic fashion on a climb that once destroyed him. The sport’s best one-day racer kept running into the sport’s best stage-racer, and neither side blinked. And an Irishman came alive in yellow, to light up the Tour in July.

Let’s take a closer look at some of my favourite moments of 2025.

Milano-Sanremo in 2025 delivered the rare kind of finale where everybody watching thinks, for a second, that the “impossible” version of the race might finally happen. Pogacar turned the Cipressa/Poggio sequence into a stress test, not a waiting room, and still couldn’t detach the one rider who treats that coastline like home. The key detail for me wasn’t just that Van der Poel followed; it was how calm he looked doing it, as if the accelerations were questions he’d already answered in training.

Even though the Dutchman said afterwards that he died a thousand deaths hanging onto the back of Pogacar on the climb, he was even able to lay in his own blow towards the top of the Poggio. And, behind the top 2, Ganna was able to claw his way back on in time for the sprint.

When it finally snapped into the sprint, Van der Poel played the psychology perfectly to win the race for a second time. “I knew the other two wanted to make it a long sprint. They probably thought I would make it as short as possible, so I surprised them a bit when I saw the 300-metre sign, I launched my sprint and felt strong enough to keep it to the finish line.”

Pogacar’s post-race line hit me because it sounded like a man talking himself back onto the start list before he’d even changed clothes: “I don't hate Milan-San Remo but one year it needs to go right,” he said. “For sure we will come for more next year.”

And in the middle sat Ganna, almost stunned by the pace of two generational talents: “I tried to follow the two gods of cycling. I couldn't do anything more, those two guys have taken several years off my life. I think this is one of my best-ever performances. But what else can I do?”

I don’t think any climb carries baggage quite like the Colle delle Finestre does for Simon Yates, which is why his 2025 Giro win felt heavier than “just” a Grand Tour. The sport loves a neat loop-back narrative, but it rarely hands one over so cleanly, return to the site of a famous crack, flip the script, leave no doubt. This time, Yates didn’t simply survive the Finestre, he used it as a launch ramp, and the race ended up feeling decided by the audacity to try.

The line that keeps replaying in my head is how little he trusted the moment while it was happening. “With 200m to go, I was on the radio asking for the time gap, because I never truly believed until the very last moment, I’m speechless really.”

That’s the sound of an athlete arguing with his own memory. Then, the release: “It’s still sinking in,” he continued. “I’m not an emotional person, but I couldn’t hold back the tears. This is something I’ve worked towards throughout my career, year after year. There have been a lot of setbacks, so yeah, finally managed to pull it off.”

I did feel bad for Isaac del Toro, who had looked so strong throughout the race only to fall at the final hurdle. But, Yates’ redemption was the ultimate story of the season, and one of my favourite cycling moments of all time in fact.

The beauty of Pogacar turning up to Paris-Roubaix in 2025 wasn’t novelty for novelty’s sake, it was that he treated the race like it could be solved on the first time of asking, not merely endured. Roubaix punishes tourists. It also exposes anyone who tries to “ride it safe” while hoping talent will do the rest. Pogacar didn’t do that. He went in to race, and for long stretches he looked like a rider who’d been there five times already, positioning, reacting, and making the chaos look almost… workable.

Fresh off the back of winning the Tour of Flanders, Pogacar went into the third instalment of his spring classics battle with Van der Poel with the momentum. And he very nearly pulled off another miracle.

Then Roubaix did what Roubaix does: it made a single moment feel like a lifetime. “I was focused on trying to follow the motorbikes when I crashed. I just didn’t see the corner coming, and couldn’t brake in time to avoid crashing. Shit happens.”

The bluntness of that last sentence is the race in miniature. He was still trying to claw it back, “I believed I could come back, but the gap was all the time around 15”, and my front brake was touching the wheel. That played in my mind, and I sort of cracked a bit.” Later, he even left the door open: “I may come back to Paris-Roubaix next year”.

And Van der Poel? He won, but his words sounded like a rider who’d been taken somewhere deep by the pressure of a new kind of rival: “This victory means a lot to me. It has been a very hard race. It has been the Roubaix I’ve suffered the most in my career.” He even framed the decisive incident without gloating: “Tadej [Pogacar] misjudged a corner and I was quick enough to save it. That’s part of racing.” For me, that debut showed that is matter of when, not if, in terms of Pogacar winning in Roubaix.

Ok, I have some favouritism here given I’m part Irish. Ben Healy’s 2025 Tour performance hit the sweet spot I always want from July: a rider arriving with one clear weapon, then discovering extra rooms in the house. Healy is supposed to animate stages, light up the middle week, nick time when others are watching each other. In 2025, he did all that, and then he started collecting bigger prizes, including yellow, in a way that didn’t feel like a fluke.

Not only did he win the stage, but he also spent several days in yellow. What made it land for me was how he described the leap without dressing it up. “Last year really gave me the confidence that I could race at this level. I just did the hard work and I was always confident that I could do something like a stage win.” Then the understatement of the season: “But to cap it off with the Yellow Jersey and a top 10 in the GC is definitely a bit beyond expectations but I don’t think it’s gonna change the way that I race.”

I also loved the manner in which Healy raced the Tour too. He said, “It means a lot that people enjoy the way that I race. I just try to do it from the heart, doing what I enjoy and if other people enjoy it as well that’s great.” That’s a rider telling you he’s not going to become boring just because the stakes got bigger.

Healy’s Tour didn’t feel like “breakthrough” as a buzzword, it felt like he finally put everything he can do togetther. The bar for GC relevance is brutal, and 2025 didn’t lower it for him, he raised his own level until the jersey and the result had to accept him.

I didn’t know I needed a Tour de France final stage that raced like a one-day classic until 2025 handed us Montmartre in the rain and said: deal with it. The Champs-Élysées finale has its history, but it also has its habits, this version smashed the routine and forced the biggest names to make decisions under pressure, on slippery roads, with crowds right on top of them. And when Pogacar lit it up, Van Aert did the one thing no one else had managed to do all July: crack the King.

The quote says it plainly, “I started the final ascent on Tadej wheel, but it was actually always my plan to attack on the final climb,” Van Aert said. That “always” matters, this wasn’t improvisation, it was intent. He also admitted the chaos didn’t line up with the script in his head: “I thought that there would be a bigger group when we went up the last ascent…”

What I took from it wasn’t “Pogacar is beatable” (he’d already won the Tour overall), it was that Van Aert still has the nerve to pick a moment, pick a target, and commit, even when the target is the sport’s most feared rider. Yes, Pogacar dominated and defeated Vingegaard and Visma overall, but Van Aert made sure he got the last laugh.

Which of the above was your favourite moment of the season? And, did I miss any of your personal favourites out? Let me know below!