UCI president blunders by congratulating Pogacar instead of Evenepoel on World TT title
UCI president David Lappartient found himself in an awkward spot on Sunday evening after congratulating the wrong rider on the men’s time trial world title in Kigali. Instead of Remco Evenepoel, the actual winner, his message on social media hailed Tadej Pogačar as the new champion.
The post, which went online a few hours after the race, read: “Congratulations to Marlen Reusser and Tadej Pogacar! Two fantastic performances today to win the first two rainbow jerseys of Kigali 2025.”
The only problem was that Evenepoel had crushed Pogačar earlier in the day, clawing back more than two minutes and catching him before the finish. Pogačar missed the podium entirely, while Evenepoel stormed to his third consecutive world title in the discipline.
The error was corrected within 15 minutes, but screenshots had already begun circulating widely, and reactions quickly mocked the blunder. For Pogačar, it added a touch of salt to an already painful afternoon in Rwanda.
The timing was not ideal for the UCI either, coming amid ongoing criticism of safety measures such as GPS tracking and lingering debate about Rwanda as host nation. By the time the amended post was published, the damage was done, and the congratulatory message was remembered more for the name it got wrong than the rainbow jersey it meant to celebrate.
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