"There’s only one guy that can win" - Bruyneel in awe of Tadej Pogacar's world championship defence

The men’s road race at the 2025 World Championships in Kigali will be remembered as the day Tadej Pogacar moved yet another step closer to GOAT status. The Slovenian attacked with more than 100 kilometers to go and held the world’s best riders at bay to claim his second consecutive rainbow jersey. For Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin, speaking on The Move podcast, the outcome was expected but incredible nonetheless.

As Bruyneel put it: “I’m going to say no. I’m going to say there was nobody able to follow Pogacar. If Ayuso and Del Toro are not able to follow him then I don’t think Remco would have followed him either.”

Pogacar’s decisive move came on Mount Kigali with 104 kilometres remaining. Unlike last year, when he bridged to the remnants of a breakaway, this time the acceleration was instantly the race-winning move as only Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro could follow momentarily.

“Pogacar does what he did last year but better,” Bruyneel explained. “Last year he attacked with a little under 100 km. This year he went with 104 km to go on Mount Kigali… this was straight away the winning move.”

Even for experienced observers, it was a reminder of just how complete the Slovenian has become. Bruyneel admitted: “Why did I even doubt Pogacar? This is the biggest confirmation that he’s the best in the world on a course like this.”

The damage was devastating. “There is no beating this guy,” Bruyneel said. “He just makes it look smooth… almost everybody else passed the finish line dead, dead.”

Remco Evenepoel, fresh from winning the time trial world title, was widely seen as Pogacar’s greatest challenger. Yet his day unraveled on Mount Kigali. He was dropped heavily on Mount Kigali, suffered bike issues, and later voiced his frustration. Still, the double Olympic champion did manage to pick up the silver medal.

Bruyneel was clear: “Would Remco have been able to follow Pogacar? No. He got dropped big time. He was not with the second group and he was not with the third group.”

Much of the discussion centered on Evenepoel’s bike changes. “It could be that his disappointment comes down to not being able to communicate his problems… without those bike changes, he thought he had a chance,” Bruyneel said.

Yet as Martin pointed out, champions must deal with adversity: “To be a champion, stuff goes wrong and you have to deal with it. It’s not going to be perfect.”

The Belgian did still claim silver, but his attitude afterward drew as much commentary as the ride itself. “Remco is not going to be happy unless he wins,” Bruyneel noted. “That’s also the quality of a champion, not happy with second, only satisfied when he wins.”

The Rwandan circuit proved every bit as selective as organisers had promised. The relentless climbs and cobbled sections prevented recovery and magnified every weakness.

“On this course there was no recovery. Zero. Once you blow, it’s over,” Bruyneel emphasised.

What set Pogacar apart was not just power but technique. “Pogacar looked so smooth on the cobbles… like he was gliding over them, while everyone else was working the bike,” Bruyneel observed.

For much of the decisive phase, Pogacar was joined by his UAE Team Emirates – XRG colleagues Isaac Del Toro and Juan Ayuso, though both eventually cracked. Their presence on the front created a strange dynamic, mixing professional loyalties with national ambitions.

“It’s clear that between Del Toro and Pogacar, there’s good vibes. But with Ayuso, that relationship is done,” Bruyneel said, alluding to the Spaniard’s looming transfer away from UAE to Lidl-Trek for 2026.

Had Ayuso lasted longer, the tension might have exploded into open rivalry. As it was, Del Toro rode strongly before fading, finishing seventh, while Ayuso hung on for eighth.

Kigali’s 270-kilometer distance and over 5,000 meters of climbing ensured only the biggest engines could contend. “If Pogacar participates, there’s only one guy that can win, and it’s him,” Bruyneel declared.

He added: “Anything over 250k reduces the guys who can win. That last hour separates the really huge engines from the merely good ones.”

That separation was visible in the results: Remco Evenepoel finished nearly 90 seconds behind the winner, Ben Healy took bronze at more than two minutes, and riders further down the top ten were measured in minutes rather than seconds.

Beyond the tactical intrigue and technical issues, the core message of the race was unmistakable: Pogacar is the undisputed strongest rider in the world when the terrain turns brutal. He may just be the greatest we have ever seen.

“When everybody expects you to win and you’re there when everybody expects you to be there, and you just deliver, and in what a fashion he delivered,” Bruyneel said.

The way he did it, early, aggressive, and unrelenting, left little doubt. He is not just a repeat champion but a rider who appears untouchable in this type of race.

For the rest of the peloton, the challenge is daunting. Evenepoel was the best of the rest, but his inability to match Pogacar uphill raises questions about whether he can ever truly beat him head-to-head on such terrain.

The younger generation, Del Toro at 21, Ayuso at 23, showed promise but also their limits. Their time may yet come, but for now, the Slovenian has a firm grip on both the rainbow jersey and the narrative of men’s cycling. The course itself highlighted the reality of modern world championships: with races designed this hard, only the very best can realistically win. Outsiders and opportunists, once a feature of the rainbow jersey, have little chance.

Ultimately, Kigali’s world championship road race was less about suspense and more about inevitability. Pogacar announced his intentions on Mount Kigali and never looked back. Those who tried to follow were broken, those who chased never came close.

“There was nobody able to follow Pogacar,” Bruyneel concluded.

The simplicity of that statement captures the essence of the day. Cycling’s biggest one-day race was won not through chance or tactical nuance but by the sheer force of the best rider in the world doing what he does best: breaking everyone else.