Tadej Pogacar had no need to attack on the final stage of the Tour de France. Defending a lead of more than five minutes in Sunday’s time trial, he was set to comfortably win the race for the third time and first time in three years, anyway.
But defence has not been in his vocabulary during this race and he simply could not resist another attack.
With his main rival Jonas Vingegaard unable to challenge him, Pogacar celebrated his Tour victory in style with a dominant win in the time trial ending in Nice for the 17th stage win of his already illustrious Tour career.
The 25-year-old Slovenian rider also became the first cyclist to secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.
“To win both together is another level above,” said Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates. “I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day. Even at the Giro I remember I had one bad day. This year, the Tour was just amazing. I was enjoying it from day one.”
The two-time defending champion Vingegaard of Denmark was second overall. He also finished the 21st and final stage in second place.
Ottawa’s Derek Gee finished ninth overall, just the third Canadian to finish in the top 10. Steve Bauer was fourth in 1988 and Ryder Hesjedal was fifth in 2010. Gee will represent Canada at the Paris Olympics.
Pogacar won the 34-kilometre time trial on the French Riviera’s roads from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes, 24 seconds. Vingegaard was one minute, 3 seconds behind him and Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel 1:14 back in third spot.
In the overall standings, Vingegaard finished 6:17 behind Pogacar and Evenepoel was third overall, 9:18 behind Pogacar — whose other Tour wins came in 2020 and 2021.
“I’m super happy. I cannot describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France,” Pogacar said. “This year everything (was) perfection.”
The race did not finish in Paris as it usually does because of the Olympic Games. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi called the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the southern French Alps “perfect cycling territory.”