History was made at the Zürich World Championships – But is cycling still stuck in its own past?
Everyone knew he was going to do it.
Everyone knew that Tadej Pogačar would attack at some point. It was inevitable.
And yet, when the three-time Tour de France champion did attack just over 100km from the finish line in Zürich, everyone in the peloton blinked. They were powerless to stop him. It must have seemed pointless even to try.
From the moment the Slovenian accelerated on the fourth ascent of the Witikon climb, his riding away to victory was, to all intents and purposes, a certainty. It would happen because this is what he does. When he stated in a pre-race interview the exact moment, the exact sector of gravel, at which he would attack during the 2024 edition of Strade Bianche, everyone laughed. But Pogačar was true to his word and won by almost three minutes. At the time of writing, he is about to cross the line of the Giro dell’Emilia, alone, with over two minutes on the chasing pack.
When you look at his palmarès, it almost seems odd that ‘Pogi’ hadn’t already won the World Championships. However, by doing it now, this year, he joins an exclusive club of riders who have had seasons as remarkable as his. Eddy Merckx in ’74 and Stephen Roche in ’87 are the only other riders to achieve victories in the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championships in the same season.
By doing it in the way he did, with his unique brand of spirit-crushing brilliance, Pogačar showed why the history books are being rewritten.
The day before, in a markedly different race, Lotte Kopecky added to her own storied history. In the torrential rain, having been dropped from the lead group on more than one occasion, she dragged herself back from the brink of defeat to dominate the sprint for the line, beating American sensation Chloé Dygert by over a bike-length. In doing so, she became the first woman in over a decade to win the rainbow jersey in back-to-back years. Her recent performances in one-day races beggar belief, and the Belgian’s retention of the rainbow bands is testament to that.
It was undoubtedly an historic World Championships; for the first time, para and non-para competitions were combined into the same event, a long overdue but welcome development. Additionally, every event was broadcast live without geo-blocking to ensure that a global audience could witness the wide range of racing talent on offer.
As such, fans the world over could witness Dame Sarah Storey, already Britain’s greatest Paralympian, claim her thirty-ninth para-cycling world title with a stunning performance that almost lapped the field.
Yet, despite the records and the performances, this year’s World Championships made it all too clear that cycling is still handcuffed to its own difficult past. Eighteen-year-old Swiss rider Muriel Furrer crashed heavily in Thursday’s junior road race and suffered a severe head injury, passing away a day later. Her death is the third to occur within the sport in less than two years. Fellow Swiss Gino Mäder, 26, crashed heavily during 2023’s Tour de Suisse, and Norwegian Andre Drege was fatally injured on a descent during the Tour of Austria in July.
The lack of cameras, and more importantly, the lack of team radios, an idiosyncratic rule for international events, meant that nobody saw Furrer crash and nobody noticed her absence or was able to report the incident until after the event had finished over an hour later. Investigations into her passing are ongoing, but in the wake of the incident the Union Cycliste Internationale’s moves to ban team radios in all races, as is the case at Olympic and World Championship events, appear baffling.
It is suggested that the decision will lead to more exciting and natural racing, but in reality, it creates unnecessary safety risks that put riders’ lives on the line, while undermining team strategies and causing confusion throughout the peloton.
Rarely was this more evident than during the Elite Women’s Race, when an attack from the Netherland’s Riejanne Markus was effectively nullified by her own teammates in the chasing group who presumably hadn’t realised whom they were chasing.
In the early 1990s, few riders wore helmets. Thirty years later, they are a requirement that have saved countless lives. Radios have been a part of professional cycling for almost as long and have been fundamental to the safety improvements seen in the sport during that time. They allow riders to communicate and relay vital information. Take radios away, you may as well bring back casquettes and wooden brake pads.
2025’s World Championships will be similarly historic to those in Zürich. They are the first to be held in Africa, and will take place in Kigali, Rwanda. It is a huge leap forward for a sport that lacks adequate diversity at its apex. The Kigali World Championships will also see the inaugural dedicated Women’s U23 race, an event conspicuous historically by its absence.
There is much to be said for the positive steps the cycling as an establishment is taking, but it will all come to naught if it consistently undermines itself with regressive decisions surrounding rider safety.
