The tenth edition of the European Championships brought about one of the more predictable weekends in terms of results than most races this season. All the podium steps were occupied by current superstars of professional cycling like Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma, Anna van der Breggen, Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel and the future — or rather emerging — star, Paul Seixas.
Coming a week after the World Championships, it seemed like Groundhog Day for the men’s race, with Pogačar launching a long range solo with Evenepoel the next best, but unable to match the Slovenian’s climbing ability. Whereas in the women’s, the Dutch squad took their ninth European title as Vollering powered away to a much-needed win. But there was more to the racing than you can see from just the results. We analyse six of the main talking points from the two races.
Vollering gets her win
For a rider of Vollering’s ability and ambition, a season which only includes victories at Strade Bianche in March, La Vuelta España Femenina in May, a second-place finish at July’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and a few other wins here and there, can be considered a disappointment. It was La Grande Boucle in July that she had set as her goal for 2025, so missing out was a major blow to the Dutch star. She then wasn’t able to challenge for the world title in Rwanda, as a stalemate ensued amongst the favourites’s group. However, she was back to winning ways on Saturday, with a clinical 37km attack, which reminded everyone — including herself — of her ability.
Vollering was back to winning ways at the European Championships (Image: Billy Ceusters/Getty Images)
Van der Breggen is still at the top
As her younger teammate was a minute up the road, the 35-year-old Van der Breggen was tracking the Dutch team’s biggest threat, Kasia Niewiadoma. The Polish rider won the sprint for second, which Van der Breggen, showing her class, decided not to contest after Niewiadoma had ridden at the front of the pair for the whole of the final hour. When Van der Breggen announced she was coming back to the professional peloton for the 2025 season, she herself questioned whether she could compete at the elite level of the sport and although she may not be the world-beating rider that she was in her first stint in the WorldTour, she has proved all year that she is still consistently one of the top 10 riders. Her third place at the Europeans was another example of this.
The Netherlands get their tactics right
Despite being the strongest national team for the past decade, the Dutch women’s squad failed to win the In Kigali last weekend — their fourth consecutive loss at the race. Part of the reason it didn’t work out for them was that the rider they sent up the road in a break, Riejanne Markus, wasn’t on the same level as the likes of the winner Magdeleine Vallieres. They were then trapped behind, unwilling to chase Markus down and risk bringing the likes of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Kim Le Court into contention. However, on Saturday they made no such mistake, perhaps aided by the fact the former rider was a non-starter, meaning on paper they had the strongest climber on their roster in Vollering and chose to completely back her. Vollering duly went solo with 37km to go, on the longest climb of the day, the 7km at 7% test up the Saint Romain de Lerps, shutting down any possibility that another surprise could take place.
Evenepoel isn’t far off Pogačar at one-day races
After his second silver medal in the space of a week, both in similar circumstances, Evenepoel would be forgiven for thinking beating Pogačar at one-day races is a forlorn challenge. However, in both the road races Evenepoel has comfortably been the best of the rest behind the Slovenian. Where he has missed out is on the climbs — he lost most of his time to Pogačar (1:28 at the Worlds and 0:31 at the Europeans) when the road tilted upwards, on Mont Kigali last weekend and on the Saint Romain de Lerps this past Sunday. A one-day race without the same amount of climbing will suit Evenepoel, who appears equal to if not stronger than his counterpart on the flat terrain, as shown by his world and European time trial wins in the past two weeks. However, to topple the best in the world, Evenepoel will need to be supported by riders using different tactics to the ones they have used in the past two races.
Evenepoel was second to Pogačar at the world and European road races (Image: Billy Ceusters/Getty Images)
Forcing Pogačar’s hand isn’t the way to beat him
Evenepoel’s Belgian squad isolated Pogačar from his Slovenian teammates before the final ascent of the Saint Romain de Lerps. However, this only meant that the world champion had no choice but to attack on the climb, otherwise he would risk being attacked by multiple riders in the final 75km. The Belgian tactics would have worked well if they had some riders up the road to support Evenepoel — either to drag him back to Pogačar or to keep attacking him and forcing him to chase. As it stands, isolating Pogačar before a significant climb, without getting your teammates ahead, is effectively poking the bear. In Pogačar’s eyes, it is the least risky tactic to just get ahead by himself, even with 75-100km to go — he knows he is the strongest in the race and going into the finale with other riders only complicates his task.
Seixas is the real deal
Behind the top two came the 19-year-old French rider, Paul Seixas, who is continuing to demonstrate why there was so much hype around his emergence as a professional rider. The Frenchman finished ahead of seasoned riders used to attritional races, like Toms Skujiņš and Mattias Skjelmose. France has been dreaming of its first male winner of the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault won in 1985. For years, Romain Bardet and Thibault Pinot shouldered that burden, but now the Seixas is the rider who they are looking at. On Sunday he finished 3:41 behind Pogačar, but considering he has only just turned 19 and the Slovenian is most likely the greatest athlete to race a bike, that margin is hardly a bad result. Expect to see Seixas’s meteoric rise continue into 2026, where perhaps he will start his Grand Tour.
Cover image: Bernard Papon - Pool/Getty Images
