World Championship 2025: Men’s RR, September 28

[Red Rick]

Says a lot about how exciting the race isn't that the past few pages are >50% Pogacar fanboys.

Even in the Pogacar thread it's more like it's a task completed as if he just did the groceries and it's already talking about the next 5 years of monument wins, GT wins and whatnot.

 

[Berniece]

Even in the Pogacar thread it's more like it's a task completed as if he just did the groceries and it's already talking about the next 5 years of monument wins, GT wins and whatnot.

And people wonder why Pogacar gets fatigued mentally

 

[Red Rick]

And people wonder why Pogacar gets fatigued mentally

3 weeks of bagging groceries won't it ever stop

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I can't understand how Tadej was able to stay in front of Remco for so long.

Not only that. Pog was even gaining time on Evenepoel and co on final 2-3 laps. @Red Rick explained it pretty well. Cumulative elevation gain of 5500 m mattered as well with Pog looking as thin as during the Tour.

 

[Lequack]

Valverde interview, in Spanish

https://twitter.com/x/status/1972310365942989286

View: https://x.com/MarcaTMF/status/1972310365942989286

 

[Lequack]

Some pics

 

[RedheadDane]

Some pics

Evenepoel briefly forgetting he was participating in a bike race, not a dance-off competition.

 

[AmRacer]

Evenepoel briefly forgetting he was participating in a bike race, not a dance-off competition.

Showing his fotball skills.

 

[JohnWayne]

How far was he back?

The circuit isn't that long so if you're down like 22 minutes by the time you get to the penultimate lap you're already caught and taken out.

The technical regulations stipulated a time limit of 15mins. So yes, very few if any who voluntarily did not finish.

 

[topcat]

Evenepoel briefly forgetting he was participating in a bike race, not a dance-off competition.

Looks like he's trying to shake out the cramp in his leg. It doesn't look like he's losing the head. In my book, he was unlucky and he's the moral winner.

 

[tobydawq]

That's a thing?
Surely the riders who did finish shouldn't be punished because only a few did.

What do you think?

 

[Danskebjerge]

How far was he back?

The circuit isn't that long so if you're down like 22 minutes by the time you get to the penultimate lap you're already caught and taken out.

Which is a fair rule, I think. We didn't get much information about the riders outside of the top 10, but as far as I could tell from the commentating, Charmig was in the peloton when his teammate Honoré joined an attack.

Ghebreigzabhier Amanuel from Eritrea was the last finishing rider - he was 30th, 12:04 behind Pogacar. You should think it would be possible to finish 1-10 minutes behind him.

 

[Cycling111]

@Devil's Elbow
The really important data is what I posted the other day. In France, this year, Paris-Roubaix, Dauphiné, and TDF all saw their rating increase. Dauphiné reached an all-time high, and so did Paris-Roubaix.
That's more significant than what's happening on a forum that's a rather outdated medium.

The complaints you here don't match the audience data, or the fact that Pogacar is the only active cyclist with more than 2 million followers on Instagram.

He's the cyclist who draws the most viewers. Paris-Roubaix's historic rating increase this year wasn't due to VDP or Pedersen; it was dute to Pogacar´s debut.

And the fact that a Dauphine dominated by Pogacar reached historic ratings doesn't even need to be analyzed. Not being a French cyclist, generating that is incredible.
The Vuelta is desperate for Pogacar to participate, ask why.

But yes, what happens on a forum is more important than on Instagram or the television audience . A forum is not something representative in 2025.

By the way, the most hypocritical thing of all is that those who complain the most on the forums are the ones who most want their favorite cyclists to dominate. This is like the French who complains about dominance and wishes Seixas could be the new Hinault, winning races by five minutes.
Or those who predicted that Remco would win every race by 10 minutes shouldn´t complain now.

Those comments in a forum are worthless to measure the impact. The truly objective data say that Pogacar is the cyclist with the largest audience and the most followers on social media. If he's doing cycling a disservice, imagine the rest, who don't have half the impact on those numbers.

What I find boring is always reading the same people, ten times in each thread, saying how boring something is.

 

[scribers]

Even in the Pogacar thread it's more like it's a task completed as if he just did the groceries and it's already talking about the next 5 years of monument wins, GT wins and whatnot.

I’m just glad he isn’t begging the press pool for his early retirement

 

[RedheadDane]

What do you think?

Never know with the UCI...

 

[scribers]

He saw Tom Boonen in the crowd, they went to a daytime disco met up with some Peruvians and sampled some of their marching powder

Nighttime disco is unsavory enough but a daytime is just frightening

 

[Berniece]

The really important data is what I posted the other day. In France, this year, Paris-Roubaix, Dauphiné, and TDF all saw their rating increase.

And in the rest of the world? Right, it went down. So substantial for the sport that more people in a single country watched it.

In Belgium less people watched De Ronde in 2025 compared to 2024. What does that say?

 

[Red Rick]

@Devil's Elbow
The really important data is what I posted the other day. In France, this year, Paris-Roubaix, Dauphiné, and TDF all saw their rating increase. Dauphiné reached an all-time high, and so did Paris-Roubaix.
That's more significant than what's happening on a forum that's a rather outdated medium.

The complaints you here don't match the audience data, or the fact that Pogacar is the only active cyclist with more than 2 million followers on Instagram.

He's the cyclist who draws the most viewers. Paris-Roubaix's historic rating increase this year wasn't due to VDP or Pedersen; it was dute to Pogacar´s debut.

And the fact that a Dauphine dominated by Pogacar reached historic ratings doesn't even need to be analyzed. Not being a French cyclist, generating that is incredible.
The Vuelta is desperate for Pogacar to participate, ask why.

But yes, what happens on a forum is more important than on Instagram or the television audience . A forum is not something representative in 2025.

By the way, the most hypocritical thing of all is that those who complain the most on the forums are the ones who most want their favorite cyclists to dominate. This is like the French who complains about dominance and wishes Seixas could be the new Hinault, winning races by five minutes.
Or those who predicted that Remco would win every race by 10 minutes shouldn´t complain now.

Those comments in a forum are worthless to measure the impact. The truly objective data say that Pogacar is the cyclist with the largest audience and the most followers on social media. If he's doing cycling a disservice, imagine the rest, who don't have half the impact on those numbers.

What I find boring is always reading the same people, ten times in each thread, saying how boring something is.

So what you mean is Pogacar vs Vingegaard is an improvement in ratings over Roglic vs the field in Dauphine? And Van der Poel vs Pogacar in Roubaix with all of its novelty increases the rating over Van der Poel wafflestomping the pubcrawlers?

Absolutely mindboggling.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

@Devil's Elbow
The really important data is what I posted the other day. In France, this year, Paris-Roubaix, Dauphiné, and TDF all saw their rating increase. Dauphiné reached an all-time high, and so did Paris-Roubaix.
That's more significant than what's happening on a forum that's a rather outdated medium.

The complaints you here don't match the audience data, or the fact that Pogacar is the only active cyclist with more than 2 million followers on Instagram.

He's the cyclist who draws the most viewers. Paris-Roubaix's historic rating increase this year wasn't due to VDP or Pedersen; it was dute to Pogacar´s debut.

And the fact that a Dauphine dominated by Pogacar reached historic ratings doesn't even need to be analyzed. Not being a French cyclist, generating that is incredible.
The Vuelta is desperate for Pogacar to participate, ask why.

But yes, what happens on a forum is more important than on Instagram or the television audience . A forum is not something representative in 2025.

By the way, the most hypocritical thing of all is that those who complain the most on the forums are the ones who most want their favorite cyclists to dominate. This is like the French who complains about dominance and wishes Seixas could be the new Hinault, winning races by five minutes.
Or those who predicted that Remco would win every race by 10 minutes shouldn´t complain now.

Those comments in a forum are worthless to measure the impact. The truly objective data say that Pogacar is the cyclist with the largest audience and the most followers on social media. If he's doing cycling a disservice, imagine the rest, who don't have half the impact on those numbers.

What I find boring is always reading the same people, ten times in each thread, saying how boring something is.

Racing with Poggi is predictable and therefore dull. Just give the twitter generation some more time to let it sink in. I believe most of the increased interest in French sports from its own population in 2025 stems from spillover from a very successful Paris Games event in 2024. The French fell in love with sports again. Poggi's dominance offers zero sustainable growth, au contraire.

 

[AmRacer]

Racing with Poggi is predictable and therefore dull. Just give the twitter generation some more time to let it sink in. I believe most of the increased interest in French sports from its own population in 2025 stems from spillover from a very successful Paris Games event in 2024. The French fell in love with sports again. Poggi's dominance offers zero sustainable growth, au contraire.

You are Dazed and Confused 😁

 

[gavia88]

And in the rest of the world? Right, it went down. So substantial for the sport that more people in a single country watched it.

In Belgium less people watched De Ronde in 2025 compared to 2024. What does that say?

That it was raining in 2024 and a good day to be behind your television

 

[kingjr]

Racing with Poggi is predictable and therefore dull. Just give the twitter generation some more time to let it sink in. I believe most of the increased interest in French sports from its own population in 2025 stems from spillover from a very successful Paris Games event in 2024. The French fell in love with sports again. Poggi's dominance offers zero sustainable growth, au contraire.

I've never had more fun watching cycling than these past 6 years. The late 2000s by contrast feel like some dark nightmare I never want to experience again.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Where are you lot getting these viewing figures? I've seen this claim repeated many times on many different threads, I would be interested to see this and have asked several times on here.

As far as I know international numbers are down, the only ones I've seen on this forum are ones posted from France TV. They only measure audience numbers for that particular channel in a country where cycling viewership is at all all time high.

 

[Cycling111]

Skujins top five again. I didn't see that coming.

Skujins is the Miroslav Klose of cycling.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Where are you lot getting these viewing figures? I've seen this claim repeated many times on many different threads, I would be interested to see this and have asked several times on here.

As far as I know international numbers are down, the only ones I've seen on this forum are ones posted from France TV. They only measure audience numbers for that particular channel in a country where cycling viewership is at all all time high.

The go-to source for this is Daam van Reeth, a professor at the University of Leuven who compiles the viewership numbers for the main markets (where available) and compares to the rolling five-year average. At the Tour, audience figures were stagnant to decreasing everywhere except for Germany for obvious reasons. Which is especially worrying because typically competition for attention with the Worlds/Euros and the Olympics means numbers are a bit better in odd-numbered years (this is a big part of why numbers in France in particular were way down in 2024, with the Olympics being at home and the national team making it to the Euros final).