'It was hard to keep the belief' - Van Aerts drops Pogacar on Montmartre

Wout van Aert has been a man in search of himself for much of this Tour de France, unable to bend the race to his will as he had done in his years of plenty. But the Belgian saved his best for last on stage 21, dropping Tadej Pogačar on the last climb of Montmartre to win on the Champs-Élysées.

Pogačar’s overall victory was already assured but the Slovenian was keen to garland his fourth Tour triumph with a prestige stage win, and when he attacked from the winning move on the last haul up Montmartre, the direction of travel seemed clear.

Van Aert, however, wasn’t prepared to surrender. He resisted Pogačar’s initial onslaught on the rain-soaked cobbles and then responded with a vicious kick of his own near the summit. He achieved something nobody else managed on this Tour – he dropped the invulnerable Pogačar.

There was still the small matter of a treacherous descent to navigate, but Van Aert’s lead never looked in danger and he stretched out his advantage to 17 seconds at the finish, slowing to thank his teammates over the radio before rolling across the line. It was the tenth Tour stage win of Van Aert’s career and his second on the Champs-Élysées after his bunch sprint victory in 2021.

“It was a special day out,” Van Aert said. “It’s really special to win on the Champs-Élysées once again and, of course, on the first occasion we climb to Montmartre.”

The rainy conditions meant the GC race was neutralised before the three ascents of Montmartre in the final 50km, but it was still a spirited finale, with Van Aert joining a six-man move that featured teammate Matteo Jorgenson as well as Pogačar, Davide Ballerini, Matteo Trentin and Matej Mohorič. After Jorgenson attacked on the approach to the final ascent, it fell to Van Aert to try to overcome Pogačar up Montmartre.

“The rain made it quite sketchy, but I managed to stay upright with full support from my teammates,” Van Aert said. “I have to thank them for believing in me to try over and again. Today, they were still there to support me. Without them I couldn’t control this race. Our plan was to go into the last climb and leave it all out there, and it worked.”

Van Aert endured an injury-scarred 2024 season, and he understandably struggled to reach his best form in the Spring, with the nadir arriving when he was upset in the sprint by Neilson Powless at Dwars door Vlaanderen. A stage win on the gravel in Siena at the Giro d’Italia and a key cameo in Simon Yates’ heist on the Colle delle Finestre suggested a corner had been turned, but Van Aert’s Tour was a mixed one to this point.

His best result was second in the sprint at Laval, but he was frustrated in the break at Toulouse and Carcassonne, though he showed signs of life with his work for Jonas Vingegaard in the final week.

“To be honest, I also wanted the 20 stages before today,” Van Aert smiled when asked if he had targeted the Montmartre finale. 

“I came close a few times, but I was also far off on several occasions. Even yesterday I didn’t feel good enough to make the breakaway, so the hardest thing for me was to keep the belief. But the people around me kept believing in me and I was able to do it.”

Although Visma lost the Tour to a rampant Pogačar, the team still comes away with second place overall and two stage wins thanks to Van Aert and Simon Yates, who won stage 10 to Le Mont-Dore.

“I have to say we came to this Tour with the ambition to win the yellow but strongest rider in the race and the biggest cyclist in the world won it,” Van Aert said. “Tadej Pogačar was the strongest and we tried to give him competition. I’m proud of how we raced as a team, how we kept trying every day. And for sure we don’t go home without prizes. We won two stages, Jonas is second on GC and we won the team classification, so we should be proud.”