2025 Double Defense: Pogačar's Historic First-Ever Same-Year Retention of the Tour de France and the Rainbow Jersey

2025: An “Absurd” Season

For Tadej Pogačar, 2025 was a season that tore the record books apart. This year, he accomplished something no one in road cycling history had ever done: successfully defending both the Tour de France overall title and the World Championship road race title in the same year.

It sounds like just “two titles,” but for riders who have done long distances, the difficulty of these two events comes from completely different sources. The Tour is a three-week war of attrition, testing whose body can hold up until the end; the World Championship is a one-day, winner-takes-all affair, testing who can make no mistakes on that day, on that climb, on that corner. Defending both in the same season demands that the same person be both the most durable machine and the sharpest blade.

Why “Defending” Is Harder Than “First Win”

Winning a first title carries a bit of surprise-factor advantage; defending is different:

• You are the one being targeted: Every team’s tactics are designed around you. Any missed feed, any downhill mistake is instantly magnified.
• Schedule squeeze: The Tour is in July, the World Championship in autumn, with a whole string of top-tier races in between. Maintaining form for that long means the entire year’s training, racing, and recovery rhythm can barely afford a single misstep.
• Mental toll: Defending leaves no “bonus” option. Winning is expected; losing is an event.

This is also why, before this, no rider had ever “held onto” both the yellow jersey and the rainbow jersey in the same year.

In 2025, How Much Did He Actually Collect

Also worth mentioning: on Stage 4 of the 2025 Tour de France, Pogačar took his 100th career victory. A rider reaching triple-digit win totals in the middle of his career is already an absurd narrative on its own, and in 2025 it only counted as one minor piece of news in this season.

Three Monuments in a Single Season: Only the 2nd in History

The five Monuments (Milan–San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Il Lombardia) are the highest tier of one-day racing: long routes, brutal terrain, and endless variables. Most top riders can etch their name into history with just one.

In 2025, Pogačar took three in a single season: Tour of Flanders, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and Il Lombardia. He is only the 2nd rider in history to win three Monuments in a single season. And these three span completely different terrain personalities—the cobbled climbs of Flanders, the relentless Ardennes hills of Liège, and the long climbs plus technical descents of Lombardia. Being able to digest all three dishes proves not that “he is good at climbing,” but that “he has virtually no obvious weakness.”

In the same spring classics campaign, he and Van der Poel swept all four spring Monuments between them, and the only one Pogačar missed—Paris–Roubaix—was by a single place.

First European Title: One More Box Checked

In 2025, he also took his first career European Road Championship title. For a rider who already has the Tour and the World Championship, the European title may not be the most glamorous piece, but its significance lies in “checklist management”: a rider who wants to be part of the GOAT conversation is ultimately judged not by a single victory, but by how many boxes on the résumé remain empty.

So, Which Boxes Are Still Empty?

Even after a season like 2025, Pogačar’s to-do list remains clear:

1. Paris–Roubaix—the final piece for a full sweep of all five Monuments.
2. Vuelta a España overall title—the final piece for a full sweep of the Grand Tours.
3. Olympic road race gold medal.

This list matters because it turns 2025 from merely a “bumper year” into a year that raised the bar: when a person has taken everything available, every remaining piece is the hardest piece to take.

Extended Thoughts for Taiwanese Riders

In Taiwan, we are most familiar with the narrative of one-day long climbs—Wuling, Beiyi, Fengguizui—mostly about “burning yourself out in a single day.” What Pogačar truly demonstrated in 2025 is cross-cycle form management: how to push your body to the limit in July, and then push it again in autumn.

For the average rider, the concept you can borrow is actually simple: don’t set just one peak per year, but absolutely don’t set too many either. Divide your key races into 2 to 3 cycles, with a genuine low-volume recovery period in between—this is more likely to bring out your best form on the crucial days than maintaining 70–80% intensity all year round. Of course, training varies between individuals; cycle length and intensity should progress gradually. If you feel unwell, rest first, and seek professional help when necessary.

After 2025, the debate over “who is the strongest of this era” is not over, but the question has quietly changed: it is no longer “how strong is he,” but “what is there left that he hasn’t done.”

Related Reading

• The 2024 Triple Crown: The First in 37 Years, the Year Pogačar Wrote Himself into Cycling History
• Back-to-Back World Titles: What the Rainbow Jersey Really Means for a Grand Tour Rider
• Pogačar’s Fifth Title: A 2026 Tour de France Overview, a Year Alongside Four Legends
• 26 Tour de France Stage Wins: Pogačar’s Harvest Route from 2020 to 2026