'I don't know where it came from' - Van der Poel conjures up masterpiece in 'dream' Paris win

Only the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar could match Van der Poel’s fierce acceleration on the final ascent on the Côte de la Butte Montmartre, and the two combined well to carry a lead of 10 seconds onto the Champs-Élysées. 

Decathlon CMA CGM were closing hard on behalf of Olav Kooij, but Van der Poel produced one last acceleration in the finishing straight that proved too much even for Pogačar. It still looked as though the sprinters would sweep up Van der Poel, but he threw his bike at precisely the right moment to claim the win, just ahead of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen.

The win was Van der Poel’s second of the Tour after he claimed a fine victory in Ussel on stage 9, while he delivered the lead-out that propelled Philipsen to the line in Voiron on stage 17,

“It’s incredible,” Van der Poel said. “It was super hard and then to be up there with the best rider in the world, all my respect for Tadej. I thought that we were going to get caught back but then I was just thinking about this moment and I just put my head down in the last 500 metres.

“I just went as hard as I could and I was just waiting until a wheel was coming past and it didn’t happen, didn’t happen…. In the very end, I see a Pirelli tyre next to me, and it’s the one from Jasper. It just shows we never give up. Maybe the start of our Tour was not good, but one and on the Champs-Élysées, I think it’s pretty good…”

The climb of Montmartre was added to the Tour finale in 2025, but Van der Poel missed the chance to test himself on the ascent last year as he had abandoned the race due to illness. He watched at home as his old sparring partner Wout van Aert denied Pogačar the win.

“I was thinking about this when I was sick last year and had to watch this stage on television. I was already thinking about this moment and then the way it went, it’s a dream,” said Van der Poel.

“I’m super happy. If there was one race I still wanted to win in my career – and I have a few, of course – but this was one of them.”

Van der Poel’s late surge to stave off the chasers here brought back memories of how he grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat in a dramatic finale at E3 Harelebeke this spring. In another echo of some of the finest wins of his career, Van der Poel collapsed beyond the finish line, his exhaustion evident.

“We have a saying in Dutch that it has to come from your toes,” Van der Poel said when asked where he found the energy. “I don’t know where this came from, but not from my toes. I don’t know where it came from.”