The Vélo d'Or 2025 has been officially awarded and Tadej Pogacar is once again the best cyclist of the season, also winning the Eddy Merckx Prize for the best Classics rider. In the women's section, the prestigious Vélo d'or went to Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt, while the Best French Rider of the Year Award, the Bernard Hinault Prize, was awarded to Kévin Vauquelin.

For Pogacar, this is the third Vélo d'Or of his career: as last year, the Slovenian champion was elected best cyclist of the 2025 season and best Classics cyclist by 40 journalists from 25 countries and for the first time also by fans, during the ceremony held Friday evening at the Pavillon Gabriel, with Mark Cavendish serving as a special presenter.

According to the jury, the Slovenian was the only one capable of winning on every terrain and in almost all periods of the year. He holds the seasonal record with twenty victories, including a second world title and fourth Tour de France win, and won the award by obtaining the highest number of votes, placing ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieu Van der Poel.

One of the reasons Pogacar won the award is his unique way of attacking solo, as he did with 66.6 km breakaways at the World Championships, 75 km at the European Championships, 36 km at the Giro di Lombardia, making his story unique.

The UAE Emirates XRG rider this season was also the least defeated rider, who nonetheless made the podium, such as at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, where he was only beaten by Van der Poel: we saw him as the absolute dominator at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia, and he became the first rider in history to podium in all five Monument Classics in a single year and the only one to have won the Autumn Classic five times in a row (from 2021 to 2025).

Pogacar was not present during the awards ceremony, but wanted to send a video message of thanks: "It is a true honor and pleasure to receive this award again. Unfortunately, I did not feel well and therefore am not with you this evening. So I can say I am disappointed because I did not personally receive this award. But I want to thank everyone for their support and we will see each other soon".