And so at the conclusion of the 113th Tour de France, it’s no great surprise that Tadej Pogačar has joined the exclusive five-time winners' club. There was little doubt beforehand and little doubt throughout the three weeks that anyone could mount a serious challenge. Once Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race on stage 15, the only real interest became who would join the World Champion on the steps of the podium and how many more stages the Slovenian could or would win.
This Pogačar overall victory was probably his least stressful in terms of a rival being at his level on all terrains. When Visma Lease a Bike lost their GC leader Vingegaard, the challenge was never going to be a head-to-head one but potentially an error on the part of UAE Team Emirates-XRG letting dangerous riders be part of an attacking group. Despite illness striking the team in the final week and Brandon McNulty having to abandon, they always had the race situation in hand. The consequence of Pogačar’s dominance at the head of affairs played out between the riders and teams in the fifth to tenth spots in the overall standings as the days counted down in the third and final week. The biggest shock came from a Pinarello-Q36.5 assault, with Tom Pidcock temporarily jumping up to fourth before tumbling back down the rankings as the other teams reacted to being caught out.
