European Cycling Championships 2025 in retrospect: Winner Pogačar and the anniversary in numbers
Andreas Kublik
· 06.10.2025
The European Championships in France ended a week after the World Championships in Rwanda - with top performances and prominent title winners such as Tadej Pogačar, Demi Vollering, Remco Evenepoel and Marlen Reusser. The German team also celebrated successes - especially in the junior classes. There was plenty to see at the venues in the Ardèche and Drome departments around the Valence conurbation in the Rhone Valley - our European Championship highlights in figures.
10: Anniversary for the professionals in France
The European Road Championships have been an event format for 20 years. The premiere took place in Moscow in 2005. As a title fight at the highest European level with elite class races, the European Championships only took place for the tenth time. It was not until 2016 that professional men's and women's cyclists competed for the white European champion's jersey with blue rings and stars symbolising Europe for the first time in Plumelec, France. In the first few years, the European Championship titles were reserved for young riders in the U19 and U23 (male and female) categories.
2: Tadej Pogačar - First world champion, then European champion
For once, Tadej Pogačar hasn't achieved anything that hasn't been achieved before. The Slovenian is the second male cyclist to be both world and European champion in the professional men's road race. In 2016, Peter Sagan won the European Championship premiere for professional cyclists in Plumelec in Brittany - as the reigning world champion. The year before, the Slovakian had won the World Championship title for the first time in Richmond in the USA. Sagan followed this up with two more world titles shortly after the 2016 European Championships at the World Championships in Qatar and in Bergen, Norway, in 2017. Unlike the rainbow jersey, spectators will not see "Pogi" in the European champion's jersey. The rainbow jersey of the world champion has priority - the Slovenian is allowed to wear it until 26 September 2026. There are only a few days between the next World Championships in Canada (27 September) and the next European Championships (4 October 2026) - there is an extensive transatlantic trip in between, so further race starts in which he could make a brief appearance in the European Championship jersey are rather unlikely.
17: Elimination race shows effect
Only 17 riders reached the finish in the professional road race and were categorised. After 202 kilometres and 3400 metres of climbing, Luxembourg's Mats Wenzel finished 17th and last. The low number of riders who completed the race was also due to an official requirement. In order to minimise the obstruction of traffic, all racers who were more than ten minutes behind the leader were removed from the competition at the first finish, as lequipe.fr reported. "There were 18 riders who stayed in the race. That's ridiculous. We at least want to be allowed to finish the race at home in front of the French public," said French rider Julien Bernard. Not a single one of the five German starters made it through - the German Cycling squad had 0 finishers, just like in the World Championship race a week earlier.
9/10: European Championship dominance of the Dutch women
The Netherlands is the dominant nation in women's cycling. This is also reflected in the list of European professional champions. Demi Vollering in Guilherand-Granges was the ninth time in ten years that a female cyclist wearing the orange jersey of the Dutch Cycling Federation has won the European Championships. Vollering reached the finish line after 116 kilometres as a soloist, 1:18 minutes ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma from Poland. Bronze went to Vollering's compatriot Anna van der Breggen.
1: Karl Herzog is the first German U19 European champion
Karl Herzog is the first German Junior European Champion. The 16-year-old from Allgäu won as a soloist. It is a promise of a great future in cycling. Prominent predecessors as European Junior Champion were the later professional world champions Michal Kwiatkowski and Remco Evenepoel. The younger brother of professional cyclist Emil Herzog (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) is a successful project in the German World Tour racing team's youth programme. He usually rides in the jersey of Grenke-Auto Eder, the U19 team of the top squad. National team colleague Magdalena Leis won the second medal for the German Cycling delegation. She was second behind Spain's Paula Ostiz in the junior individual time trial. The 18-year-old Leis missed out on gold by just 2.41 seconds.
4: Marlen Reusser equals Ellen van Dijk's title record
Marlen Reusser is European champion in the individual time trial for the fourth time. The Swiss rider has now won as many titles in the battle against the clock as Ellen van Dijk from the Netherlands. In the coming years, the new world champion Reusser can take over the record alone with another title in the discipline. Van Dijk will retire from professional cycling at the end of the season. In her own words, for good.
50: Evenepoel sets standards in the individual time trial
Remco Evenepoel was the only European Championship participant to complete the 24-kilometre time trial course at a speed of 50 km/h. Although the 24-kilometre course was not particularly long for a professional time trial, the final 1.1 kilometres were uphill with an average gradient of 5.2 per cent to the finish in Étoile-sur-Rhone. In the end, the current world champion from Belgium finished 43 seconds ahead of the Italian Filippo Ganna. Surprising third place: Niklas Larsen from Denmark.
5: Franziska Koch competes with the best women
Franziska Koch has proven in recent years that she is one of the best German cyclists. The 25-year-old from Mettmann has won the German championship title twice in a row. At the European Championships, she finished fifth in the final sprint of the first chasing group. Her team-mate Antonia Niedermaier followed in eighth place.
19: Paul Seixas - the youngest won bronze
The youngest participant in the professional race at the World Championships was also the youngest medallist: Paul Seixas took bronze in the professional men's race eleven days after his 19th birthday. He was the youngest participant to take part in an elite men's race since 2016. In France, the professional from Team Decathlon is already being tipped as the next winner of the Tour de France.
1: European Championship premiere in Slovenia
The next European Championships will take place from 3 to 7 October 2026 in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (see this message). It is the premiere for the small country that has risen to become one of the leading cycling nations thanks to the successes of Primož Roglič and Pogačar. The current European champion Pogačar grew up just a few kilometres from Ljubljana.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
