As Jhonatan Narváez out-sprinted Oscar Onley atop Willunga Hill in South Australia on 25 January, to claim UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s first victory of 2025, perhaps we should have known something was up. At the first WorldTour race of the year, the world’s best cycling team opened their victory account, and there would be no let up. At another team, Narváez would be an out-and-out leader. At UAE, he is just one of many.
The victories have not stopped coming. There were four wins in January, before the season even really got going, eight in February, 11 in March, 12 in April, which was bookended by Tadej Pogačar winning the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Only five victories followed in a fairly light May, before 15 in a golden June, the month of national championships. Thirteen wins followed in July, with the Tour de France on centre stage, before eight in August, and as of the morning of 9 September, five this month.
