There were 63 men’s and Women’s WorldTour events in 2025, a whole range of races for exciting things to happen in. The truth is, I’m sure just like me, you don’t remember most of them. If I concentrate hard enough, I can remember the Tours de France, and the ones I was at, but there are whole stage races which are a bit of a blur.
Do not worry then, for we’re going to talk you through our favourite races of year, from the spectacular to the unexpected – hopefully some of these should jog your memory.
Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Will they, won’t they? My jaw hit the floor a number of times while watching cycling this year, but none harder than when I realised Lotte Claes and Aurela Nero were going to stay away at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Neither rider had won a professional race before that March afternoon. Suddenly, each of them had a one-in-two chance of a WorldTour victory, and a key Classic at that.
Yes, the peloton probably miscalculated the chase; yes, there were some frustrated riders at the finish; but let that take nothing away from Arkéa B&B Hotels’ Claes, who wrote her name into legend at the line in Ninove. It would take another three and a half minutes until the group of favourites rolled in. It doesn’t happen often, but I love it when a doomed move pays off.
That race reminded me that, just when you think cycling might be getting predictable, the most dramatic, incredible things can happen.
Men’s Dwars door Vlaanderen – Adam Becket, news editor
(Image credit: Getty Images)
From a final group of four at Dwars door Vlaanderen in April, three in the yellow of Visma-Lease a Bike, Neilson Powless in pink somehow won. The slumped heads of Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert said it all as they crossed the line.
No-one could blame them, really, for not understanding what had happened. After 184.2km of hard racing, in which the race-winning move had been set up around 80km from finish by Visma-Lease a Bike, who would have bet against the men in yellow? Van Aert was there, a man who has won bunch sprints of almost every kind, as well as Classics before. However, something weird happened when the Belgian opened up his sprint in Waregem. He just couldn’t get up to speed. Powless, sprinting for his life, could, coming around Van Aert and into cycling immortality.
It was a reminder of how mad cycling is sometimes. It’s not always predictable.
Men’s junior road race at the World Championships – Hannah Bussey, tech writer
(Image credit: SWpix.com)
The men’s junior road race at the World Championships was the biggest standout race for me. Harry Hudson made such an audacious move— got away and then just kept going. The only way that stuck is due to his 100 percent commitment to self-belief.
There is no way you can watch the last two and a half kilometers of that race without getting chills, with tears welling up, and the thought that he might actually do it and become the first British Men’s Junior World Champion.
To see the rest of the GB lads still in the mix at the end also feels like a real showcase for the future generation of cyclists coming through the ranks right now.
Despite all the turmoil in the sport and cycling industry, this race was just pure joy to watch, even if it was a little tear-jerking towards the end. It’s the happily-ever-after result most cyclists dream of, and it’s so amazing to see someone’s fairy tale come true.
Paris-Roubaix – Jamie Williams, video manager
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Few races can get the heart going like a monument and this year Paris-Roubaix had everything a classic should: early attacks, crosswinds, crashes and a nail biting finale.
I was also extremely pleased to see Mathieu van der Poel come out on top, not because I don’t like Pogacar but rather because it now means he’s going to have to return next year to do it all over again, no one should win Roubaix on their debut!
Strade Bianche – Aaron Borrill, tech writer
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It’s lived in the shadows of the older monuments for nearly two decades, but Strade Bianche has become one of the most beautiful races to watch, both for the physical challenge it presents and the sheer scenes it offers viewers. It’s my favourite race on the calendar.
From the glorious Tuscan hills, the sterrato or white gravel roads and epic dust left behind by the peloton or those brave enough to float off the front, there’s never a dull moment. And then you add Tadej Pogačar. It’s pure theatre.
Tour de France – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer
(Image credit: Alamy)
This season saw me out working at Opening Weekend and at the Tour de France. As any race fan who has stood at the roadside cheering the riders on, or mingled with them around the start and finish areas knows, there’s little substitute for that first person experience when it comes to connecting with a race.
Ergo, it will come as no surprise that for me the Tour was easily the most memorable race of the year for me. I wasn’t in France for the entire race – only the third week, but from Mont Ventoux to Paris that week was a gift that kept on giving.
Memorable performances from double-winner Thymen Arensman, sprinter Jonathan Milan and Wout van Aert were of course underlined by a history-making GC victory from Tadej Pogacar. Once again, La Grande Boucle had delivered.
The Lloyds Tour of Britain Men – Meg Elliot, news and features writer
(Image credit: Getty Images)
This was the first race I went to as a Cycling Weekly employee! It was, I was reliably informed, one of the most well attended the Tour had ever seen. Everyone was out in Geraint Thomas masks to welcome him home on his last professional race.
We watched the peloton form a guard of honour for the Welshman in rainy Newport before the race began, then hot footed it over to Cardiff to chat to people waiting to cheer Thomas across the line. One man I spoke to bought him dinner once after spotting him in a restaurant in Grangetown.
“To come from Maindy as a young lad and then win the Tour de France as well is incredible,” another guy told me, kids in tow.
Milan-San Remo – Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Despite its usual ‘predictable’ finish and pointless first 250-plus kilometres, Milan-San Remo had one of the most iconic finishes the race has ever seen. Thanks yet again to one Tadej Pogačar. His fifth swing at trying to add the monument to his ever-growing list of palmarès, however, again ended in a podium but no cigar.
There is one moment that will live with me forever in this ‘Tadej’ era, though, in which Pogačar himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were clear at the top of the Cipressa and racing for the win. It gives me shivers to think about it now.
Let us not forget what Van der Poel did on this day, either, for he will now be forever known in history as the one who denied Tadej again.
