Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Pauline Ferrand‑Prévot (Visma‑Lease a Bike) walked away as the undisputed stars of cycling’s awards season on Friday night, as Vélo Magazine crowned them 2025 Vélo d’Or winners at Paris’ Pavillon Gabriel.
Slovenian all‑rounder Pogačar collected the Men’s Vélo d’Or for the third time, along with the Eddy Merckx trophy for best classics rider, after a season that scarcely left room for anyone else. A fourth Tour de France, back‑to‑back world road titles, the European road crown and wins at the Tour of Flanders, Liège‑Bastogne‑Liège and Il Lombardia formed the backbone of a 20‑victory campaign.
The 40‑strong jury of journalists from 25 countries rewarded that dominance emphatically. Pogačar topped the men’s poll with 200 points, almost double runner‑up Jonas Vingegaard (Visma‑Lease a Bike) on 103, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin‑Deceuninck) third on 95. It is the kind of margin that turns pub debates into history‑book entries and, as we have already seen with the $65k frenzy over his Tour‑winning Colnago, pushes his market value into a different stratosphere.
If Pogačar’s year was about extending an empire, Ferrand‑Prévot’s was about a triumphant return. Back on the road after Olympic mountain bike gold, the French rider claimed Paris‑Roubaix then the Tour de France Femmes, adding stages en route to yellow. The jury handed her the Vélo d’Or Femmes and the Jeannie Longo trophy, with 170 points against Demi Vollering (SD Worx‑Protime) on 151.
Other honours in Paris underlined the breadth of elite talent: Lorena Wiebes took the women’s Eddy Merckx sprint‑classics award, Kévin Vauquelin earned the Bernard Hinault trophy for best Frenchman, and Matteo Trentin received the Prix Gino Mäder for social commitment.
The Vélo d’Or has long been cycling’s closest thing to the Oscars, but 2025 felt like a tipping point. Pogačar’s third crown installs him firmly in the all‑time pantheon while Ferrand‑Prévot’s road rebirth crystallises the rising energy of the women’s peloton.
