Tadej Pogacar has won the Tour de France for a record-equalling fifth time, finishing safely in the peloton on the final stage in Paris as Mathieu van der Poel claimed victory on the Champs-Elysees.
According to BBC News, the 27-year-old Slovenian rider for UAE Team Emirates-XRG joins Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the most successful male riders in the race’s history.
Pogacar’s triumph was his third consecutive Tour victory. His campaign included five stage wins, among them a record-breaking ascent of Alpe d’Huez on stage 19, where he confirmed another dominant overall performance.
After the race, Pogacar thanked supporters, his team and his family, saying that seven Tour appearances, seven podium finishes and five overall victories felt “unbelievable”. He also said he hoped Jonas Vingegaard and other injured riders would recover quickly.
Van der Poel, riding for Alpecin-Premier Tech, won the final stage after attacking with Pogacar with 11km remaining. The Dutch rider held off a fast-closing group to beat team-mate Jasper Philipsen by a narrow margin.
The final stage was cut from 133km to 89km after emergency services were redirected to wildfires in south-west France. The route again included the cobbled Montmartre climb, which helped create a more selective finale than the traditional flat sprint.
In the overall standings, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel finished second, six minutes and 26 seconds behind Pogacar. Pogacar’s Mexican team-mate Isaac del Toro was third, nine minutes and 42 seconds down, and also won the white jersey for best young rider.
Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won the king of the mountains classification, while Denmark’s Mads Pedersen took the green points jersey. British rider Tom Pidcock finished ninth overall, while Netcompany Ineos Cycling ended the race without a stage win.
