There’s only hours to go until we forget all about the 2025 pro cycling season. But before we plunge ourselves into a new UCI calendar, let’s take a step back and reflect on 2025 one final time.
Just 12 months ago, our appetites were whetted by a redistribution of current stars and old faces in women’s cycling. However, it would be road convert Pauline Ferrand-Prévot who’d claim the sport’s biggest prize in August as she romped home with France’s first Tour de France title in 30 years. Meanwhile, in the men’s sport, Tadej Pogačar continued his reign of terror over the pro peloton by taking another yellow and rainbow jersey double.
The pair were rightfully handed the Vélo d’Or last month, but we’re here to have the final say. So, with the impending doom of another Pogačar-dominated 2026 just around the corner, let’s dish out some of our own unofficial silverware (or rather, some minor recognition on a screen).
So, dust off your black tie and come along to the wholly unserious Cyclist 2025 pro cycling awards.
The minor prizes
Xavier Pereyron
Before we name our 2025 winners, let’s take a leaf from The Grammys book and reveal the victors of our minor prizes first.
Let’s kick things off with a divisive one: the Price Hike of the Year. With a unanimous vote, that title goes to TNT Sports after the broadcaster swallowed up Eurosport at the beginning of 2025, forcing cycling coverage onto its £30.99 per month platform.
Fending off competition from the UCI’s yellow card system and the GC action at the Vuelta a España, OneCycling wins our Damp Squib of the Year after threatening the WorldTour in the winter with the prospect of Middle Eastern crits, streaming services and ticketed races.
Speaking of tickets, the Unpopular Idea of the Year is handed to Pippo Pozzatto for ticketing roadside spots at his Veneto Classic in October. Yes, for just €10, you could have grabbed the best seat at the house on the race’s showpiece Tisa climb. Don’t tell him about Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, otherwise entry for the Veneto Classic might become more exclusive than the Oasis reunion tour or 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Elsewhere, Tweet of the Year goes the way of UCI chief David Lappartient for his pally message to Nicholas Sarkozy, the former French president and newly-sentenced convict, while our Rear of the Year, handed to the most battered backside from crashes, is relinquished by Primož Roglič for once. Instead, that goes to Demi Vollering after her tumble at the Tour de France and a subsequent off-season training crash.
Now, let’s dive into our slightly more tangible prize criteria.
Race of the year: men’s Giro d’Italia
Zac Williams/ZW Photography
While Pogačar’s dominance occupied the majority of the column inches in 2025, the most exciting races were often those with a Slovenian-shaped absence – with the exception of Milan-San Remo, in fairness.
As such, the Giro d’Italia was easily the most exciting Grand Tour of the year. If anything, it was the only one with a compelling GC narrative, as the final week of the Corsa Rosa saw four riders come within touching distance of the maglia rosa during the race’s final throws. During those final stages, the pink jersey swingometer pinged between Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz, only for Simon Yates to emerge triumphant on Stage 20 in a redemption arc that saw him banish his Colle delle Finestre woes.
The final result aside, the Giro served up some captivating storylines. Wout van Aert broke his year-long victory drought with an impressive triumph on Stage 9’s stellar day on the gravel, Egan Bernal rose up to Grand Tour form once again and Isaac del Toro had a maverick run in the maglia rosa. Like all good stories, the Giro’s finale was worthy of a Pulitzer prize with its nail-biting (and head-scratching) final mountain stage.
Honourable mentions: women’s Strade Bianche, men’s Milan-San Remo, men’s Dwars door Vlaanderen
British rider of the year: Matt Brennan
James York
Even in a year where a Brit won a Grand Tour, it has been the youngsters who’ve shone brightest. Cat Ferguson claimed a Monument podium ahead of her first WorldTour victory at the Tour of Britain in June, Oscar Onley almost made the Tour de France podium, Paul Double became a WorldTour standout after claiming the Tour of Guangxi and Zoe Bäckstedt went undefeated against the clock.
However, Matt Brennan has been the British name on everyone’s lips, rightly so after a season littered with impressive sprint victories. These came in one-day races, WorldTour stages and among A-list competition. To boot, Brennan toppled a number of significant sprinters en route to his 15 pro victories in 2025, namely Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay. The cherry on top was a debut Paris-Roubaix, making him the youngest rider on this year’s startlist at the Hell of the North.
Brennan’s best years are certainly in front of him. He’s yet to start a Grand Tour, but many are touting him as the heir to Wout van Aert’s throne at the helm of Visma’s sprinting and Classics core.
Honourable mentions: Oscar Onley, Cat Ferguson, Simon Yates
Irish rider of the year: Ben Healy
Xavier Pereyron
2025 saw the first Irish participation at the Tour de France Femmes, an historic first Irish women’s world title on the track and a first maillot jaune stint for the Irish since the era of Stephen Roche. Not only that, but the rise of Ulster-born riders in the youth scene has also been noteworthy, with stage victories at the Giro Next Gen from sprinter Seth Dunwoody and climber Adam Rafferty. As a result, next year will be the most Irish in both men’s and women’s WorldTour history, placing Irish cycling in its healthiest state since the 1980s.
However, there’s one clear choice for our top Irish laureate. Yes, Ben Healy enjoyed a phenomenal season as his breakaway panache was rewarded greatly this year. He animated the Tour de France in July, claiming a stage victory, top ten overall, a supercombativité prize and a two-day stint in the maillot jaune. Not only this, Healy solidified his status in one-day races by finishing on the podium of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships in September.
Outside of the Evenepoel and Pogačar ring, Healy was clearly the best mortal of the bunch.
Honourable mentions: Lara Gillespie, Seth Dunwoody, Sam Bennett
Unsung hero of the year: Simone Consonni
A.S.O./Billy Ceusters
By definition, the unsung hero of the year should really be someone who has bypassed all recognition and praise. Yes, it might be easy to call on someone like Matteo Jorgenson and Jhonathan Narvaéz, but I think they’ve had their time in the spotlight. Instead, let’s turn to the best leadout man of 2025: Simone Consonni.
The Italian was an integral component in Jonathan Milan’s sprinting lineup in 2025. In fact, he was there to pilot his track cycling teammate to almost every victory he claimed this season, from the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana to the Tour de France. The only patch on the pair’s partnership would be Tirenno-Adriatico, when Consonni abandoned before seeing his teammate claim the final stage. These eight victories had Consonni’s input written all over it.
In a year where leadouts felt like a dying art, Consonni proved its importance.
Honourable mentions: Justine Ghekiere, Juliette Labous, Tim Wellens
Fiasco of the year: Tour de Romandie Féminin disqualifications
Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
What’s a cycling season without some chaos. This year, we saw the pro peloton deal with a new yellow card system, mid-contract exits and pro-Palestinian protests, to name a few. Let’s keep things sporting, however, and highlight the most perplexing scandal of the 2025 calendar. For that, let’s travel to Switzerland and the Tour de Romandie Féminin.
As part of the UCI’s SafeR programme, the Tour de Romandie Féminin was used as a testing ground for new GPS tracking technology. With this, the governing body required teams to nominate one rider per team to ride with the on-bike device. However, these rules were only communicated to the paddock on the eve of the first stage.
In a standoff on the opening day, five teams were disqualified from the race for not complying with these new protocols, including SD Worx-Protime and Visma-Lease a Bike. Pre-race favourite Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was among those chucked out, alongside some heavyweight names hoping to finetune their form ahead of the World Championships. What ensued was a rather sour war of words in the press, and a stage race that had a galeforce wind blown out of its sails.
Honourable mentions: Volta ao Algarve route mishap, Lenny Martinez’s sticky bottle, Derek Gee-West leaves Israel-Premier Tech
Underdog of the year: Magdeleine Vallières wins the rainbow jersey
Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
A surprise world champion? It doesn’t get much better than that.
This was no mean feat either. Demi Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser, Kim Le Court-Pienaar and Kasia Niewiadom-Phinney started as favourites in an exhaustive list of star names in the elite women’s road race at the World Championships in Rwanda.
On the road though, it appeared those star names had cancelled each other out during the final 50km of the women’s road race, as the breakaway was thrown the most illustrious bone in the pro cycling calendar. As such, Magdeleine Vallières, a 24-year-old Quebecker with just one prior victory, found herself in the lead group and in with a chance of gold.
Her palmarès might have been minnowed at the head of the race by Tour de France Femmes top ten finisher Niamh Fisher-Black and stage winner Mavi García, but the Canadian would spring away on the final climb and claim Canada’s first elite world title on the road. It was a double underdog bluff, something dreams are made of.
Honourable mentions: Lotte Claes at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Oscar Onley at the Tour de France, Mattias Skjelmose at the Amstel Gold Race
Quote of the year: ‘It is more like a dictatorship, unilateral, of power over you’ (Juan Ayuso)
Tim de Waele/Getty Images
The dimwit who coined the proverb ‘actions speak louder than words’ obviously didn’t get a whiff of what Juan Ayuso was cooking up this year.
Indeed, Ayuso cut ties with UAE Team Emirates XRG midway through the Vuelta a España. Although this was on the cards, the Spaniard claimed the announcement came ahead of schedule, with the rider only handed a couple of hours’ warning before UAE officially pulled the plug on their partnership during the race’s first rest day.
Upon the race’s resumption, Ayuso delivered a stern interview to the Spanish press. In it, he described his team as ‘a dictatorship’. In the same statement, he said the team were attempting to ‘damage his image’ and that he had ‘suffered one lack of respect after another’. All this was said just centimetres away from UAE’s media team, who were no doubt sweating underneath their team-branded tracksuits.
It was a bold choice of words, and one that confirmed a chasm between his own sporting direction and the one decided by the team’s bosses. Nevertheless, it left Ayuso in an awkward position as he still had two weeks of competition left at the race. Bravo, sir.
Honourable mentions: ‘I can’t wait for the Tour de France to be over’ (Tadej Pogačar), ‘Demi really thinks she’s in a golden cage’ (Jos van Emden), ‘If I’m honest, I don’t care’ (Primoz Roglic)
Villain of the year: Juan Ayuso
Tim de Waele/Getty Images
The previous award neatly takes us into this year’s biggest bad boy: Juan Ayuso.
With a storyline fit for a Coronation Street Christmas special, the UAE Team Emirates rider often found himself as the butt of the joke in 2025. Whether that be through an untimely bee sting at the Giro or a childish celebration at the Vuelta, Ayuso was at the eye of many a media storm this year.
At the Vuelta, the Spaniard leaned into his villain status. He dropped out of the GC and capitulated his support for team leader João Almeida during the first week. Ayuso would go on to claim two stages of the race, but at a high cost to his already-tattered team player reputation. UAE Team Emirates were left to pick up the pieces in the media mix zone, while teammates went on record to slander Ayuso for auld lang syne before they officially parted ways.
Honourable mentions: Danny van Poppel, Oier Lazkano, Tadej Pogačar
Team of the year: UAE Team Emirates XRG
Xavier Pereyron
Ayuso and team dictatorship behind, UAE Team Emirates XRG are the overwhelming claimants to our team of the year prize.
In 2025, the team somehow managed to surpass their already lofty record to claim a Grand Tour, three Monuments and two further podiums at three-week races. On top of this, they claimed 60% of WorldTour stage race titles, not only from Tadej Pogačar, but from their breadth of riders, from Jhonathan Narvaéz to Brandon McNulty.
Together, the squad accumulated 97 race victories – a record for any team in the sport’s history. If it was a dictatorship behind the scenes, it felt like one on the road at many times.
Honourable mentions: XDS-Astana, FDJ-Suez, Uno X men
Lifetime achievement award: Lizzie Deignan
GodingImages
For our lifetime achievement award, we pay homage to a trailblazer in the women’s sport: Lizzie Deignan.
Having gained notoriety from her silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Deignan quickly rose to the precipice of the sport. During her prime in the 2010s, she claimed the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche, Trofeo Binda and La Course. Furthermore, she became World Champion in 2015 and garnered the first cobblestone trophy in the history of the women’s Paris-Roubaix.
This year, the British rider announced her retirement after announcing the arrival of her third child. That said, she’ll remain in the public light as she joins Ned Boulting in Never Strays Far’s future coverage of the Tour de France.
Enjoy retirement, Lizzie.
Honourable mentions: Ellen van Dijk, Geraint Thomas, the Critérium du Dauphiné name
Men’s rider of the year: Tadej Pogačar
Xavier Pereyron
Blessed with a Midas touch in pro cycling, Tadej Pogačar’s iron-fisted grip tightened this year.
After another season befoot with Merckx comparisons, the Slovenian seems to have hit his prime. Pogačar won every stage race he started in 2025, and claimed podiums at all five Monuments. This includes a remarkable runners-up spot at Paris-Roubaix on debut. Propped up by his Tour de France victory, three Monument titles and rainbow jersey defence, Pogačar topped the UCI rankings with his highest tally yet.
There’s no arguing here, Tadej Pogačar was the man to beat in 2025.
Honourable mentions: Others need not apply
Women’s rider of the year: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
Xavier Pereyron
Yes, we’ve coipied the Vélo d’Or picks here, but Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s season was the most impressive on the women’s side, even if Demi Vollering topped the year-end UCI rankings.
Importantly though, Ferrand-Prévot proved the doubters (myself included) wrong. She bounced back to her 2014 form to build a season-long palmares filled with strong results in the Classics and Grand Tours. Don’t forget, she finished on the podium of Strade Bianche and Tour of Flanders before becoming the first French rider to win Paris-Roubaix in a generation.
If that wasn’t enough, Ferrand-Prévot cannibalised the Tour de France Femmes in the summer to claim the yellow jersey and two stages along the way. Besides the Tour title, the Olympic mountain bike gold medallist finally broke France’s winless spell at the Tour.
Riders rarely win Roubaix and the Tour in one career, let alone one season. Not least a French rideer.