And that’s it from me for this blog and this Tour. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Thank you for all your emails, your correspondence has lit up these pages. Adieu.
Relentless Pogacar wins fifth Tour de France to equal record
Tadej Pogacar took a record-equalling fifth win in the Tour de France on Sunday, joining Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain in the canon of the Tour’s most successful cyclists. In a thrilling finale to the Tour, Mathieu van der Poel took his second stage win of the race on the Champs-Élysees, fending off the pursuing pack of sprinters by a tyre’s width, after breaking clear with Pogacar on the final climb of the Butte de Montmartre.
Merckx, widely considered the greatest-ever cyclist due to the breadth of his achievements beyond the Tour itself, believes Pogacar will now go on to win a sixth Tour. “I don’t think he’ll be content just to draw level with me and the other champions,” the 81-year-old Belgian said. “He’ll soon break our record for Tour victories.”
From Montjuic to Montmartre, Pogacar and the stifling temperatures suffocated the 2026 Tour. A race staged against the backdrop of heatwaves and wildfires, culminated in the inevitable – a fifth win for the relentless Slovene.
Read Jeremy Whittle’s report from Paris in full:
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Van der Poel reaction
Speaking to TNT, the stage winnner says: “A year I was thinking about this, when I was sick last year and I had to watch this stage on television, I was already thinking about this moment. And then the way it went, well it’s a dream.
“It was super hard and I was with the best rider in the world, that’s my respect for Tadej, and I thought we would get pulled back. But then I was thinking about this moment, I just piut my head down in the last 500m and went as hard as I could. I was waiting for a wheel to come past and it didn’t. At the very end I see [Philipsen] next to me and it shows we never give up. The start of Tour wasn’t very good, but one and two on the Champs-Élysées, that’s pretty good.”
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Philipsen with some glowing words for Van der Poel, describing his teammate as a “beautiful person”.
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Looking at the replay Philipsen was definitely celebrating for Van der Poel, that is lovely to see.
Van der Poel spent a good few minutes just lying on the ground after crossing the line. He could barely get off the bike. He’s back up now, fortunately.
There was a crash behind in the sprint, I’ll try and get more on that but Van der Poel won it with a lunge on the line. Philipsen had his arm in the air, did he think he won it or was he celebrating his teammate?
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Van der Poel wins stage 21!
It’s a photo-finish on the line but Van der Poel held on with Philipsen and Pedersen coming on strong! Wow, that was incredible.
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1.3km to go They still have a gap, but it’s not much.
2.6km to go They’re going at 54km/h on this slight uphill. This is so tense. The gap is nine seconds.
4km to go Decathlon are pulling on front of the peloton and bringing down the gap. Pogacar is gritting his teeth to hold on.
5km to go They’re going to make this stick, I reckon. At which point do they start looking at eachother?
6km to go Pogacar and Van der Poel are still hammering away and the gap is now ten seconds.
7km to go The leaders are holding the gap for now.
9km to go Pogacar and Van der Poel only have a few seconds of a lead. The gap is going out though…
9.8km to go This is the same as after the last lap when they were caught, can they stay away this time?
10.5km to go Van der Poel has leapt into attack and he’s got Pogacar with him. Again it’s these two, Pedersen has been distanced.
11km to go Pogacar has moved up, Pedersen is second or third wheel. Fred Wright is leading it up the climb.
11.5km to go Pogacar looks like he’s stuck back in the pack. Pedersen is well positioned.
12km to go All the favourites are getting into position for this final assault on Montmartre.
16km to go The bell rings on the Champs-Élysées to signify the final lap. This race setup is really good, even if neutralising the GC times is slightly odd.
17.6km to go We’ve got a coterie of Norwegians on a corner performing ‘The Ro’. Lovely stuff.
19km to go The leaders have been caught, great work by Decathlon. We’ve got one more ascent up Montmartre, after which it’s about 9km to the line.
22km to go You couldn’t ask for a better lead group than this. Decathlon are on the front to try and bring this back so Olav Kooij can contest a sprint. The four out front have just ten seconds.
24km to go Van der Poel looks over his shoulder to see where Pedersen is and the Dane is closing. They probably don’t want Pedersen with them as he is arguably the quickest in a sprint.
25km to go Evenepoel is joining them at the front and Pedersen has made up ground on the descent.
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27km to go Here we go! Pogacar is attacking on the Montmartre and Van der Poel is with him. Pedersen is trying to chase, but it looks like he’s being distanced.
More final stage thoughts, Dedee writes in: “It is not always the case that the yellow jersey has a day off on the final day. I will never forget the sight of Bradley Wiggins leading the Sky train and Mark Cavendish to victory in 2012.” Very good point, that was quite something.
Brónagh McAtasney adds: “Like others, I wish this was a properly contested stage as it used to be but I’ll take an exciting sprint.
“I’ve really enjoyed some of the smaller stories this year and would like to propose a new prize of ‘Best Entertainer’ for the rider that gave us the most moments of joy. My nomination is Baptiste Veistroffer who’s been a joy on and off the bike.” I like the aditional classification idea, would that take into account press appearances and social media output?
33km to go A group of 48 riders, including Del Toro, has dropped back and is 50secs behind the front of the main bunch.
36km to go And indeed, we’re all back together.
39km to go Pogacar goes to the front, briefly, then peels off. The peloton is bringing them back. This is frenetic.
41km to go Pedersen is on the front and all the other favourites are there in a group of 14 riders. Pogacar is hovering menacingly and Van der Poel is in the mix too.
42km to go We’re on the Montmartre and the crowds are going wild. Pedersen is powering up the road and catching the break, it’s narrow and they’re riding at a blistering pace. Del Toro has made it back in.
44km to go Hang on, Isaac del Toro has an issue and had to change bike. We’re not at the time cut-off yet and he has to make up 56secs. He’s not going to lose his white jersey is he? That would be very unfortunate.
47km to go The two out front have stretched their lead of 45secs.
“Pageant or race?” Asks Tom McMahon via email. “I’m happy with the pageant stroll of the final day. Everyone has worked so hard and suffered so much, I like that they get the comradeship of collectively celebrating their incredible achievement of completing the tour and they can enjoy each other’s company on a stress free day. 20 days of intense competition is enough to decide the winner.
“Looking at it another way, it’s a flat sprint stage that is not that much of an outlier from other flat sprint stages. Nobody seems to complain about the other ones.”
49km to go The cut-off for GC times is at 41km to go, after which we might see a bit more explosive riding.
51km to go We have another couple of escapists, Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.) and Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies) have managed to eek out a half-minute lead.
58km to go Veistroffer has been swallowed up by the peloton.
61km to go Veistroffer is still out front on his own and has taken the 25 intermediate sprint points. Pedersen, for what it’s worth, came through fifth to add 12 points to his total.
Thanks for your emails on the final stage. Here’s a few of them. Let’s kick off with Patrick Lockley, who writes in: “The final stage basically a rest day for 90 per cent of the riders, chance to wave at your mum, wife and children – just needs a brass band playing entry of the gladiators to complete the irrelevancy.
“For the others a stage win, impress you employer, resolve contacts for next season, and everybody chatting to their mates about their holidays.
“I watch or attend all the stages except the time trials (boring) and the Paris final stage (boring).”
Rudd Hughes (great name): “I can understand why the riders might want to use this day to relax after three gruelling weeks, but last year, even though it was neutralised, was a thrilling race, and race is the key word. Maybe Tadej won’t be able to stifle his racer instinct today.”
Ger Nugent (also a great name): “Winning teams, in most sports, get a lap of honour and/or a welcome home open top bus. This is the equivalent for the Tour.
“On the other hand they’ve only ridden slightly less than 3,300kms in three weeks, mountain climbs, scourging heat, wildcat anti-doping testing, so maybe a mad all out fully competitive stage to give us something interesting to watch at long last.” I sense irony here.
I dare say it will turn into a race soon,” writes Dan Levy. “But it does seem a bit silly to have a day that can’t change the overall result.”
Jeremy Moxham is firmly in the ‘make it a real stage camp’: “I would like the Tour de France to come down to the wire with a ‘proper stage’. Granted, with the time gaps this year (and the rest of the GC standings) we would probably be wondering only about third place, but a recreation of Fignon v LeMond some time in the future would be exciting. All to play for in the final Sunday? Yes please!”
71km to go Slock and co. have not been permitted to go and are being reeled in but his teammate Baptiste Veistroffer has now gone out alone.
74km to go We have an attack! Liam Slock (Lotto–Intermarché) has burst off the front and taken a handful of riders with him.
75km to go The riders are getting into their saddles now and it looks like we’ve got some racing. The peloton is still together but the pace is quickening.
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Well this is a treat. My colleague Amy Sedghi, who is usually a regular on the Tour blogging beat, has emailed in to from her maternity leave: “Hi to the readers from me and from the latest addition sporting her polkadot jersey! Sad to be missing blogging the chaos and festivities of the Tour but hopefully I’ll be back at it next year!”
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83km to go We’re still honouring each of the jerseys, so no racing, but some lovely shots of Paris.
88km to go We’re off, with the four classification winners leading a slow rollout. It looks like we’re going to get a processional lap before the serious racing starts. No sign of any champagne, yet.
What do you, the reader, make of this stage? I find it quite strange as sporting spectacle. The pageantry is nice, but I’d prefer more of a proper stage. Send me an email via the link at the top of the page with your thoughts.
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It’s not long now until the rollout of the final stage, I’m not sure how this will play out initially given the precessional element.
Here’s a reminder of what happened yesterday, Jeremy Whittle’s report from Alpe d’Huez:
A quick look at today’s stage in Paris:
William Fotheringham's stage guide
Stage 21, Sunday 26 July: Thoiry to Paris Champs-Élysées, 133km
The experiment last year with climbs of the Butte Montmartre was a success, an epic win for Wout van Aert in spite of rain meaning that the stage did not count for the overall; it’s back again, but the circuit is extended so there are 10km from the top of the climb to the finish on the Champs. No Van Aert this year so watch out for Classics specialists such as Pedersen or Van der Poel, if he is still in the race. That’s assuming Pogacar takes a back seat, but I’d be hedging my bets on that.
Preamble
In a Tour de France where the events away from the road have often been more prominent than the racing perhaps it was always going to end like this. A race seared in its early stages by a heatwave, now sees its finale shortened to divert vital services to the south of France to help battle the wildfires that have gripped the region and seen nearly 200,000 people evacuated.
The riders have already done their pre-stage presentation in Thoiry, then been bused into Paris where the shortened 89km stage now starts and ends. The Tour is all over, bar the shouting, everything except the winner of stage 21 has been settled.
Yesterday Mads Pedersen, Richard Carapaz and Isaac del Toro all secured their desired jerseys. Pedersen put the point classification out of reach of Jasper Philipsen with an incredible effort over the Galibier to win another intermediate sprint, Carapaz pocketed the polkadots with scintilating performance in the mountains that saw him win his second stage of this year’s Tour, while Del Toro saw off Paul Seixas, with a mighty assist from Tadej Pogacar, in the battle for the young rider’s white jersey. Pogacar, of course, had effectively made the maillot jaune his since his attack on the Tourmalet on stage six. Today will the Slovenian will be officially crowned champion for a fifth time. He could win the stage too.
The route now takes in three trips up Côte de la Butte Montmartre, as well as a few laps of the Champs-Elysées and has the feel of a spring classic. Mathieu van der Poel is an obvious pick as the winner, Pogacar and Pedrsen too but the sprinters can’t be ruled out if they can survive the climbs. On a weary end to the Tour, whoever takes the initative today should well be the winner.
