From Colbrelli to Pogacar: the last five men’s European road champions

From Sonny Colbrelli’s duel with Remco Evenepoel in Trento to Tadej Pogačar’s long range exhibition in the Ardèche, the past five editions have produced victories in very different ways.

We look back at the riders who have worn the blue and white European champion’s jersey since 2021.

Against the Alpine backdrop of Trento, the 2021 European Championships became a race of attrition.

Antonio Jesús Soto Guirao, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Franck Bonnamour and Harm Vanhoucke formed the early break, but never built a decisive advantage. More riders joined the action as the race reached the climbs around Trento, while Italy kept the pressure high behind.

The race began to take shape when Mark Padun, Tadej Pogačar, Matteo Trentin, Victor Campenaerts and Markus Hoelgaard forced their way clear. France responded aggressively and the chase quickly stripped the peloton down to its strongest riders.

Eventually, nine remained at the front, including Sonny Colbrelli, Remco Evenepoel and Benoît Cosnefroy.

Evenepoel made his move on the penultimate ascent of the Povo climb. Only Colbrelli and Cosnefroy could follow, before the Frenchman lost contact with 11 kilometres remaining.

That left Colbrelli and Evenepoel alone at the head of the race.

Evenepoel did much of the work towards the finish, but Colbrelli had the faster finish and knew it. The Italian waited until the streets of Trento before launching his sprint and comfortably beating the Belgian to the line.

It was a fourth consecutive European men’s road title for Italy, following Matteo Trentin, Elia Viviani and Giacomo Nizzolo.

A year later, the European title was decided at the opposite end of the racing spectrum.

The 209 kilometre road race to Munich was designed with the sprinters in mind. Lukas Pöstlberger and Silvan Dillier spent much of the day out front, while the major sprint nations kept the gap under control.

The climbs around Ebersberg and Eurasburg briefly created opportunities for attacks, but there was never enough separation to prevent the race coming back together.

By the closing kilometres, Belgium were working for Tim Merlier, France for Arnaud Démare and the Netherlands for Fabio Jakobsen.

Stefan Bissegger made one final attempt to spoil the sprinters’ plans with an attack 3.5 kilometres from the finish, but he was caught as the bunch charged towards Munich.

France positioned Démare near the front in the finale, but the Dutch delivered Jakobsen into the decisive metres in ideal position.

Jakobsen finished the job. The Dutchman powered to the European title ahead of Démare and Merlier, claiming one of the biggest victories of his career and completing a remarkable return to the highest level of the sport.

The 2023 edition in Drenthe offered a very different challenge.

Over 199.8 kilometres, the riders faced narrow roads, exposed terrain and repeated ascents of the cobbled Col du VAM, a former landfill transformed into one of Dutch cycling’s most distinctive climbs.

A five man break featuring Joshua Tarling and Stefan Bissegger animated the early part of the race, but the intensity increased rapidly once the peloton reached the finishing circuit.

France raced aggressively throughout, while Italy applied pressure on the penultimate laps through Filippo Ganna and Matteo Trentin.

A reduced group eventually emerged containing many of the pre race favourites, including Wout van Aert, Olav Kooij, Mike Teunissen, Arnaud De Lie and Christophe Laporte.

Laporte had already been active earlier in the race, but made the decisive move on the final lap.

The Frenchman opened a small gap and arrived at the foot of the final Col du VAM ascent with his pursuers still within sight. Behind, De Lie drove the chase for Van Aert, with Kooij also waiting for his opportunity.

They closed rapidly in the final kilometre, but never quite made contact.

Laporte held on by the narrowest of margins, becoming the first Frenchman to win the elite men’s European road title. Van Aert took silver, with Kooij third.

In 2024, the European Championships returned to terrain designed to keep both the Classics riders and sprinters interested.

Belgium hosted the race on a route combining the Heusden-Zolder motor circuit with cobbled sectors and short climbs on the way to Hasselt.

Mathis Le Berre, Jonas Rutsch, Ivo Oliveira, Nils Brun and Felix Ritzinger established the early break, but the peloton never allowed them enough room to seriously threaten the race.

The real disruption came from behind.

Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen repeatedly accelerated on the cobbles, forcing dangerous selections and making it difficult for the pure sprinters to settle into a predictable race.

Matteo Trentin and Mike Teunissen were among those to feature in the attacking groups, but Italy eventually helped bring the race back under control with around 25 kilometres remaining.

From there, the balance shifted towards the sprinters.

Italy hit the front in the finale for Jonathan Milan, but it was Tim Merlier who proved fastest. Racing on home roads, the Belgian came through in the closing metres to beat Olav Kooij and Madis Mihkels.

For Merlier, already one of the dominant sprinters of the season, the European jersey added another major championship victory to his palmarès.

If the previous four editions had shown the different ways to win a European title, Tadej Pogačar added another in 2025.

The 202.5 kilometre route from Privas to Guilherand-Granges contained around 3,300 metres of climbing, with repeated ascents in the Drôme-Ardèche making it the hardest European Championships course in years.

Belgium and Slovenia were among the nations controlling the race as an early break established itself, but the decisive action came with more than 75 kilometres still to race.

On the final major phase of climbing, Pogačar attacked.

Remco Evenepoel initially tried to follow the Slovenian, but was unable to hold his wheel. From there, the world champion was alone.

What followed was a familiar sight.

Pogačar settled into his rhythm and steadily extended the gap, turning the final 75 kilometres into a pursuit between two of the strongest riders of their generation.

Evenepoel refused to concede and continued the chase alone, but the gap never disappeared.

Pogačar reached Guilherand-Granges on his own to claim his first elite European road title, just one week after becoming world champion in Kigali.

Evenepoel crossed the line 31 seconds later to take silver, while 19-year-old Paul Seixas delivered France a home medal in third, 3 minutes and 41 seconds behind the winner.