The European Road Cycling Championships is still a very young and often dismissed race in the cycling calendar in which riders represent their countries, and not their teams, like the UCI Road World Championships. This competition was created by the European Cycling Union in 1995, but was only added to the elite calendar in 2016.
This year, had arguably the world's biggest cycling stars taking gold medals: Remco Evenepoel for Belgium in men's time trial, Demi Vollering for the Netherlands in women's road race, and last Sunday, Tadej Pogačar won his first European Championship for Slovenia at the men's road race in French Ardèche.
It was another incontestable victory for Pogacar, who could end up as the world's best cyclist of all-time. Only Remco Evenepoel threatened him, but didn't come close, and later Juan Ayuso, who ended sixth, lamented that the other two pursuers, Christian Scaroni and Paul Seixas, didn't collaborated with him and Remco to try to catch the four time Tour de France winner.
Still, this competition fails to bring much attention from viewers... and even from cyclists. As Cycling Weekly points out, only 17 from the 97 riders finished the race, which offers little incentives in terms of UCI points and is cramped in the calendar, one week after the World Championships, which took place in Rwanda, 6,000 km away from France. Among those who retired was La Vuelta champion Jonas Vingegaard.