If it weren’t for the fact they were racing for their respective nations at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, the trio of UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders – Tadej Pogačar, Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro – that formed the decisive move in the elite men’s road race almost seemed planned.
The breakaway started with 104km to go over the mid-race centrepiece climb, Mount Kigali, located on the larger extension loop. However, by the time they reached the steep, cobbled Mur de Kigali with 99km remaining, Ayuso could no longer hang on.
22 kilometres later, Del Toro was dropped, too, while Pogačar went on to triumph after a 66km solo breakaway victory to win his second consecutive world title in Kigali.
“The plan was to go on Mont Kigali with a small group, and it happened, but this group fell apart too early. I was alone and had to manage on my own. It was a tough one to finish it off,” Pogačar said later.
He was the only rider initially to react to Pogačar’s attack on Mont Kigali, and Del Toro joined the pair on the descent. However, once they reached the steep and cobbled 400m Mur de Kigali, Ayuso’s race for the rainbow jersey was over.
“But when we got to the shorter efforts on the pavé, which today was horrible for me; every time we did those, 15 times on these circuits, I suffered a lot.”
Ayuso settled into a chase group on the six final city circuits and finished in eighth place, 6:47 behind winner Pogačar. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) secured the silver medal 1:28 back after battling through two bike changes, and Ben Healy finished with the bronze medal at 2:16 back. Only 30 riders finished the race, which was one of the toughest in the World Championships’ history.
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