History in Paris: Tadej Pogačar Wins Tour de France for the Fifth Time
The 27-year-old Slovenian equaled the record for race wins and became the youngest ever to reach five titles. Mathieu van der Poel won in a dramatic final stage, Remco Evenepoel finished second, and Isaac del Toro became the first Mexican on the podium.
Tadej Pogačar officially entered the history books of cycling this evening (Sunday) after winning the Tour de France for the fifth time in his career. The Slovenian completed his victory in the race at the end of the final stage in Paris, which was won by Mathieu van der Poel after an especially dramatic finish.
Pogačar thus equaled the record for the most Tour wins, held until today by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Induráin. At the age of 27, he also became the youngest rider to win the prestigious race five times.
The Slovenian rider effectively secured his victory during the two previous mountain stages, which ended on the famous climb to Alpe d'Huez. He won five stages during the Tour and wore the yellow jersey continuously since his victory on the sixth stage in the Pyrenees. Pogačar now has 26 stage wins in the Tour de France, ranking fourth all-time, after Mark Cavendish with 35 wins, Merckx with 34, and Hinault with 28. He also completed 70 days in the yellow jersey, overtaking Induráin and Chris Froome, and is now only behind Hinault with 75 days and Merckx with 96. Pogačar is the first rider to finish on the Tour podium for seven consecutive years, and the only one in history to be ranked in the top three in nine consecutive Grand Tours.
The final stage was shortened to 88.7 km due to massive fires in France, but it provided a fascinating race on the streets of Paris. Van der Poel and Pogačar broke away together on the final climb to Montmartre, about ten kilometers from the finish line, while a chasing group tried to close the gap. About 700 meters from the finish, Pogačar weakened, Van der Poel launched an attack and managed to hold on right to the line. The Dutchman won in a photo finish by a margin of about half a wheel ahead of his Alpecin teammate, Jasper Philipsen. Mads Pedersen finished third. This was Van der Poel's second victory in the current Tour and his fourth in his career. Pogačar finished only in 30th place.
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel finished second in the general classification, with a gap of almost six and a half minutes from Pogačar. Isaac del Toro finished third and became the first Mexican to stand on the Tour podium. He also won the white jersey awarded to the best young rider.
The current race was also historic in terms of the distribution of winners. For only the third time in 113 editions, no French rider managed to win a stage. For the first time in the history of 302 Grand Tour races, no rider from France, Italy, or Spain won a stage.
