Back to the front: cycling’s defining comeback stories of 2025

After a horrific crash during stage 16 of the 2024 Vuelta a España, which led to a pretty gruesome knee injury with a deep laceration, requiring intensive care, many wrote Van Aert off and questioned would Van Aert would ever return to his old self. 

In his return to racing at the start of 2025, Van Aert was up there competing with the best with a number of high-profile results, including a strong showing to take fourth at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, a clear showing that Van Aert could be getting back to his best, even after such a brutal knee injury. 

There was also the Dwars Door Vlaanderen incident, where Van Aert lost in a sprint versus Neilson Powless after signalling he had confidence in his sprint, despite Visma's numerical advantage. Van Aert lost the sprint with a clear indication that he still needed time to settle into the rhythm of things yet again, as the situation repeated itself at the De Brabantse Pijl, where a 'cooked' Van Aert lost a sprint to Remco Evenepoel.

His first Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d'Italia, is where Van Aert announced to the cycling world that he was back. The Belgian was a strong part of Olav Kooij's leadout as well as himself taking a victory in one of the Grand Tour stages of the season in Siena, which became reminiscent of his breakthrough performance at the 2018 Strade Bianche with Vérandas Willems-Crelan, as Van Aert battled Del Toro on the iconic Via Santa Caterina.

Van Aert's Grand Tour success didn't stop there, though, as he yet again created another iconic moment in the 2025 season with his victory on the 21st stage of the Tour de France after blasting off and becoming the only rider in 2025 to drop Tadej Pogačar on a climb. It would not be a surprise to see Van Aert go on and taste some monument success in 2026, something he has been craving since his 2020 Milano-Sanremo victory.

2025 has been the year of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in women's cycling, and what a return to road racing it has been for the queen of French cycling. After focusing on mountain biking and winning Olympic gold in 2024 on home soil, she made the transition back to the road with the goal of competing for the Tour de France Femmes overall victory, which she did in style.

Not only that, but the 33-year-old Frenchwoman roared to solo success in Paris-Roubaix in what was one of the most spectacular performances in the 2025 season, as she announced to the world, she was back. Ferrand-Prévot's Tour victory was also something to behold, it was utter domination and highlighted the level that she was at as she won the Tour de France Femmes by a stunning 3:42 margin over Demi Vollering. Perhaps many people would have assumed that Ferrand-Prévot would not be able to achieve instant success in his return to road racing, but she demonstrated it with absolute clarity. It would not be a shock to see Ferrand-Prévot repeat her heroics in the 2026 season.

Jay Vine had endured a long road to recovery after his involvement in the shocking crash at the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country. He suffered a cervical and two thoracic spinal fractures due to the crash, and was treated with a neck brace for up to six weeks. Doctors had initially feared for his life due to the seriousness of the injuries, with Vine stating in an article to Rouleur, ‘They told my wife I might not make it.’

In 2025, after a full winter of training and getting back to racing almost within four months, Vine enjoyed the fruits of his labour of his hard winter work, with the Aussie taking his first victory of the 2025 season in the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, even going on to win the general classification. 

That was followed up immediately after with a solid performance in the Tour de Romandie, as he also took a stage win that race and finished in 4th place in the general classification. Then came Vine's first Grand Tour of the year at the Giro, where Vine showed flashes of excellence, even coming close to enjoying a stint in the pink jersey after taking 3rd place on stage 2 after an individual time trial. Unfortunately for Vine, he would abandon the Giro after stage 17.

Vine's best performance of the 2025 season came at the Vuelta, where he took home two individual stage wins along with a team time trial and defended his polka-dot jersey from 2024, with his other standout performance a silver medal in the Men's Elite World Championship ITT in  Rwanda.

After a four-year stint out of racing professionally, Anna van der Breggen returned to the road with SD Worx-Protime, where she was spending time as a sports director, with a newfound motivation to achieve and perform in professional cycling. Van der Breggen's opening part of the season was a clear signal that her level was still at the top as the two-time world champion was picking up some top classified results, including a second place in Strade Bianche Donne, behind Demi Vollering.

Van der Breggen's breakthrough moment came at the Vuelta España Femenina, where she expertly attacked on a descent on stage 4 to take a wonderful solo victory, highlighting her wit and expertise in attacking at the precise moment in race situations, but also clearly showing her level had never left her. Throughout the rest of the 2025 season, Van der Breggen took further podiums in stages in the Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes, along with podiums at the Women's Elite ITT at the World's and a third at Women's Elite Road Race at the European Championships.

Cian Uijtdebroeks' cycling career thus far has been plagued by a wrath of persistent injuries and problems, with the key nemesis a nagging back injury which resulted in numbness in his legs, followed by a loss of power. This led to him enduring a pretty awful period in 2024. There was a fresh start in 2025 for Uijtdebroeks, and he started off well in the Tour of Oman, but his recurring issues persisted, leading to a DNF in Tirreno-Adriatico with a four-month layoff after the Tour du Doubs in April. 

In June 2025, Uijtdebroeks was hit by a car whilst out training, but he escaped serious injuries. His return to racing in August, Uijtdebroeks meant business, and his problems of the past looked to be put behind him. A 9th at the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa, as well as winning the GC at the Tour de l'Ain and narrowly missing out on the GC at the Czech Tour, Uijtdebroeks' August was fantastic. It didn't stop there as he took a top ten at Il Lombardia and the Tour of Guangxi, respectively.

With Uijtdebroeks making the switch to Movistar for the 2026 season, he will be hoping to build on the solid foundations he cemented for himself in the second half of the 2025 cycling season.