A limited numbered edition of The Road Book, signed by our editor Ned Boulting.
This is indisputably the age of Pogačar. But 2025 was also the year when, with one
significant exception, he started to run out of rivals. Whether that is a good thing is
neither here nor there. It is simply reality.
The greatest rider of our time takes the yellow jersey and rainbow bands, again. A
French Tour de France winner at last, and a Vuelta that almost collapsed. Another
year of this most chaotically poetic sport is once again chronicled in painstaking
detail.
With our unrivalled collection of data and acclaimed infographics, collected from
every professional race across the Men and Women’s race calendar, our 900-page
hardback, beautifully crafted in Britain, lets you savour every second from the 2025
season.
It’s not all about the numbers however, and we remain true to our aim of being a
love-letter to this most beautiful of sports as we feature essays from riders,
journalists and even comedians. A body of work which forms an irresistible ode to
the 2025 road racing season.
With a special introduction by our Editor, Ned Boulting, this edition includes heart-
filled and comprehensive recollections of the season by such illustrious figures as:
Alexei Sayle
Ian Cleverly
Rachael Jary
Peter Cossins
Isaac del Toro
Owain Doull
... and many more.
Some of the greatest cyclists of 2026 relive their monumental wins for us. These are exclusive pieces written by the cyclists themselves that you won't find anywhere else.
2026's collection of captivating essays is from a broad range of writers:
The Exorcist by Daniel Friebe
Myth Maker: Ventoux's Storied Stones by Emily Chappell
An Uneasy Alliance by Issy Ronald
An Idea of Escape by Jonathan Liew
Le Dauphin: Seixas and the Vacant French Throne by Katy Madgwick
Duopoly: The Tour's Greatest Rivalry by Kit Nicholson
Other Avenues by Tom Portsmouth
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Matthew Brennan
Matt Brennan is one of the most exciting prospects in the men's peloton. In only his second full season, and at the age of just 21, he has already amassed a truly staggering 24 victories. For context, at the same age Tadej Pogacar had eight wins, and Eddy Merckx five. Mark Cavendish was yet to win. In August 2026, he went to the Vuelta, his debut grand tour, supported by a resurgent Wout Van Aert. What happened next could hardly have gone better.
Paula Blasi
Paula Blasi's background as a middle-distance runner and triathlete has given her an endurance that she has converted to success on a road bike in record time. A little over a year after joining UAE Team L'Imad, Blasi has become the first Spanish rider to win Amstel Gold Race and has already claimed her first Grand Tour title.
Sigrid Ytterhaus Haugset
Sigrid Haugset burst onto the scene in her first year as a World-Tour rider. The 27-year-old has only been a cyclist since 2021, but in that time has completed Paris-Roubaix with a broken pelvis, ridden two Tours de France Femmes and this year took two long-distance solo victories to become both Norwegian champion, and the first Norwegian woman to win a stage of the Tour.
Afonso Eulálio
Bahrain Victorious' Afonso Eulálio found himself unexpectedly catapulted to stardom at the Giro d'Italia. The young Portugese rider missed out on a stage win after a wet and wild stage 5 but held the maglia rosa for nine days before wearing the maglia bianca on the podium in Rome.
Alexei Sayle
Watching the Tour in the Hood
In a wonderful personal recollection, legendary alternative comedian Alexei Sayle remembers the lengths that he went to in order to indulge his Tour de France viewing habits during a summer spent trying to make it big in Hollywood. It is always a wonderful surprise to find a fellow Tour de France traveller in unexpected places.
Owain Doull
In the Heart of the Bunch
Owain has penned a diary of his racing year – his last in the pink of EF before moving on to another challenge – and he shares it with us in the pages of The Road Book 2025. Doull’s thoughtful approach as a rider is matched by his thoughtful words as a writer here.
Katy Madgwick
Holier Than Wout
Standing back in admiration to encapsulate all that Flemish Holy Week offered in terms of a spectacle, Katy Madgwick recalls how this year’s versions will stand up against the very best vintages.
Rachel Jary
The Irresistible Rise to the Top
Spurred on by the long-awaited re-introduction of the women’s Milan Sanremo, Rachel Jary has penned a ‘state of the cycling nation’ analysis of the women’s racing scene. Her conclusions, contained on these pages, constitute noteworthy pause for perspective along the invigorating journey that the sport has been on in recent years.
Peter Cossins
Brave New Worlds
The long-time Road Book contributor Peter Cossins chronicled for us a historic first African World Championships. An event which was mired in pre-race controversy but served up some of the season’s most spectacular racing.
Tom Cary
Alas, Poor Tadej!
In his debt essay for The Road Book, the Daily Telegraph’s Tom Cary examines the curious phenomenon of a maillot jaune with a little bit of Weltschmerz, and asks what this tells us about Pogačar’s psychological make-up and, more broadly, about the sport of road racing itself.
Henrik Bassett
Strange Sport (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bike)
The Road Book’s very own Henrik Bassett has only just been introduced to the sport of road racing but has rapidly fallen in love with it. In this edition, Henrik recalls how he came to love road racing, and what he made of what he saw this year. Every fan will be able to identify with his words.
Robyn Davidson
Not Your Typical Vuelta a España
Debutant Road Book writer Robyn Davidson casts her eye back over a chaotic and controversial edition of the Vuelta a España to look for the hidden hipster detail that
lay glittering just below the rather predictable surface of the results.
2025 Editor
2025 was still a month away when a single moment shaped the coming season. On a wintry road in Kerkplein, a Belgian postal worker, having parked her van at the side of the road, opened the door. There was no time for 2024’s double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel to react, and he ended up being blue-lighted to the Erasmus Hospital in Anderlecht, then to be transferred to Herentals where he was treated for injuries that included a fractured hand, rib and shoulder blade. The crash was witnessed by a local butcher who told Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad: ‘Remco was hunched over, and it was clear the impact was severe. The van’s door was completely bent, and his bike was wrecked. Almost like they had to fold it up like a wheelchair. When I went over to check on him, he looked very pale.’
It would be April before Evenepoel would race again. And though he produced some notable performances, his public and total capitulation in the Pyrenees during the second week of the Tour de France was part of a settled pattern in the men’s peloton. 2025 was the year in which Tadej Pogačar finally put to rest the notion that he could be challenged at Grand Tours. As Evenepoel fell away, so did Jonas Vingegaard discover that a chasm of ability had opened up between him and his greatest rival.
2025 belonged, just as 2024 had ended, to Tadej Pogačar. It was a defining year in his ascendancy – one that saw him crest the summit of supremacy and, surprisingly for many, start to talk of an end to it all.
