In 2025, Pogacar had a year on the bike that might have even surpassed his 2024 season. While he did not have the Giro d’Italia in his calendar, he made up for that with wins at the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche, Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour Auverge – Rhône Alpes, Tour de France, World Championships, European Championships, Tre Valli Varesine.
It was a historical season in many senses of the word, achieving even more UCI points than in 2024 which is an accurate way of understanding the unreachable amount of success he’s had. He has also done all of this wearing the rainbow jersey, and went on to defend his world title in Kigali, Rwanda. He was also the only rider to race all five monuments in the season, and aside from that, he made history by being the first ever to finish on the podium of all five in one season.
Tadej Pogacar just not good enough, yet
However, that was not enough to conquer the award, in which he was matched with tennis player Carlos Alcaraz – the eventual winner; 2024 winner and pole jumper Mondo Duplantis; MotoGP driver Marc Marquez; football player Ousmane Dembele; and tennis player Jannik Sinner.