Mathieu van der Poel won a thrilling final stage of the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar sealed a record-equalling fifth overall title on the streets of Paris.
Van der Poel and Pogacar attacked on each of the three times up the cobbled climb to Montmartre and the two of them desperately fought to hold off the peloton over 10 gruelling final kilometres before the line.
But where Pogacar faded, caught with less than 400 metres to go, Van der Poel powered on to win it by just a bike length as the chasing pack bore down – with his Alpecin-Premier Tech team-mate Jasper Philipsen snatching second.
The effort required was obvious as Van der Poel all but collapsed climbing off his bike.
On a final stage shortened to 89 kilometres due to emergency services being diverted to wildfires, the Montmartre climb, first introduced to the final stage of the Tour last year after its success in the Paris Olympics, once again delivered huge drama.
Van der Poel and Pogacar went away with Mads Pedersen and Remco Evenepoel – victorious here in the Olympics – on the second ascent before being caught by the peloton, but their next attempt looked more convincing as they opened a gap of 15 seconds to a small chasing pack and 20 to the peloton.
Those gaps ticked down but only slowly as they returned to the final circuit on the Champs-Elysees and the pair entered the final straight still with a small gap before Van der Poel put in a dig that Pogacar could not follow.
“For a year I was thinking about this when I was sick last year and had to watch on television,” Van der Poel said after his second stage win of this Tour. “It’s a dream.
“It was super hard. To be up there with the best rider in the world, all my respect for Tadej, I thought we were going to get caught. I put my head down in the last 500 metres and went as hard as I could waiting for a wheel to come past me and it didn’t happen.”
It was the second straight year in which Pogacar attempted to crown a Tour title with a stage win in Paris, and the second where he fell narrowly short having lost out to Wout van Aert 12 months ago.
However, he crossed the line safely to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain as the only men with five Tour titles to their name.
His final margin of victory was six minutes and 26 seconds ahead of Evenepoel, with Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro completing the podium ahead of French teenager Paul Seixas.
“It was an amazing day,” Pogacar said. “I’m speechless. An incredible day, incredible atmosphere and I’m happy that it’s over and we won for the fifth time.
“Every victory is really special. Seven Tours already and seven times on the podium, five wins, it’s something that you wouldn’t even maybe write in a storybook and it’s just unbelievable for me.”
PA
