15 out of 17 - The incredible dominance of Pogacar and Van der Poel in the major one-day races

The numbers are clear. Fifteen of the last seventeen Monuments and World Championships have gone to one of them. The two exceptions only highlight their rule. Remco Evenepoel won Liège in 2023, but only after Pogačar crashed out. Jasper Philipsen took Milan-San Remo in 2024 with Van der Poel working for him in the finale. Beyond that, there has been no room for chance.

Pogačar’s list of victories in this period from 2023 reads like a checklist of cycling’s monuments. The Tour of Flanders in 2023 and 2025, Liège in 2024 and 2025, the Tour of Lombardy in both 2023 and 2024, and back-to-back world titles in 2024 and 2025. He does it all, over cobbles, climbs and everything in between.

In 2025, even in the races he did not win, he came close. He pushed Van der Poel hard in Milan-San Remo and finished third, and in Paris Roubaix he rode to second place, proof that there are almost no limits to the ground he can cover.

Mathieu van der Poel has been just as relentless. He added a Tour of Flanders in 2024, won Milan-San Remo in 2023 and 2025, conquered Paris Roubaix three years running, and took the rainbow jersey in 2023.

Their dominance is not only visible in the present tense but also in the history books. With nine Monument victories, Pogačar already sits third on the all-time list, alongside legends such as Fausto Coppi, Costante Girardengo and Sean Kelly. Van der Poel is not far behind on eight, level with Rik Van Looy. Only Roger De Vlaeminck with eleven and the incomparable Eddy Merckx with nineteen remain ahead.

The way they win only deepens their aura. Pogačar attacked alone on the Oude Kwaremont in the 2023 Tour of Flanders and never looked back. He dismantled Liège in 2024 with a long-range move, then stormed clear in Lombardy that same year with nearly fifty kilometres still to ride. In Zurich he claimed the 2024 World Championship with another solo of more than fifty kilometres, and in Kigali 2025 he even struck from almost seventy out, holding off the world on his own. 

Van der Poel has matched him with his own feats: in the 2024 Tour of Flanders he attacked with forty-five kilometres remaining and turned the race into a solo procession, and in Paris Roubaix that same year he went sixty kilometres from the finish and reached the Velodrome alone.

These victories are written not just in results but in the way the races themselves unfold. Their teams, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Alpecin–Deceuninck, ride with suffocating control, closing down every move until their leaders are ready to strike. For rivals, the space to improvise has all but vanished. Early attacks are neutralised, alliances crumble, and by the finale the script narrows to the same two names.

For cycling it is both a spectacle and a dilemma. Rarely have the Monuments been shaped so decisively by just two riders. Their victories reveal the sport at its most dramatic and unforgettable, yet the unpredictability that once defined these races seems to have slipped away. Until rivals discover new tactics or stronger teams emerge, the era of Pogačar and Van der Poel appears destined to endure.