Van Aert the King of Montmartre as Pogacar seals fourth Tour de France
Stage 21 was like a one-day classic, featuring three ascents of the Montmartre climb in adverse weather conditions.
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) produced one of the finest rides of his career to win a classics-style stage 21 in the rainy French capital as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won his fourth Tour de France title on Sunday. It was a thrilling battle in biblical conditions, and the inclusion of the Montmartre climb saw an exhilarating spectacle for the stage win.
With the adverse weather conditions, the race organisers decided to neutralise the times of the general classification riders, with the times being taken at the 4th crossing of the finish line, with 50.3km remaining, but that didn't stop Pogačar from fighting for the stage win in the treacherous rain-soaked conditions.
Pogačar’s acceleration on the second ascent of Montmartre formed a sextet of Classics stars, featuring Matteo Jorgenson and Wout Van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious).
Van Aert made his race-winning move on the final ascent of the Montmartre climb, following an acceleration made by the yellow jersey before proving to be the strongest on the day as he was able to drop Pogačar and solo to the victory on the Champ-Élysées to take his tenth Tour stage win and first since 2022. Ballerini finished second, with Mohorič third.
Despite missing out on the stage win, the yellow jersey celebrated across the line in 4th on the stage, and Tadej Pogačar’s final margin of victory was 4:24 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) in second, and 11:09 over Tour debutant Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), who finished third, alongside claiming the youth classification.
The stage began with the obligatory team celebrations, but these were cut slightly shorter than usual as the peloton began to get a move on with the scheduled rain incoming in Paris.
It was also announced that the general classification times would be taken at the 4th crossing of the finish line, with 50.3km remaining, due to adverse weather conditions
The expected flurry of attacks began to occur as the peloton entered the first lap of the circuit on the Champs-Élysées.
Santiago Buitrago, Neilson Powless and Jonas Abrahamsen were particularly active as riders tried to form a group clear with around 60km remaining.
Whilst there were punctures for the Australian duo of Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) and Michael Storer (Tudor), and there would be plenty more on the wet, gritty road surfaces.
Around the same time. It became clear what Visma’s ambitions for the stage were as Jonas Vingegaard paced on the front to close the gaps to the attackers to keep things in control for Wout van Aert, giving shades of Bradley Wiggins in the yellow jersey, helping to lead out World Champion Mark Cavendish in victory in 2012.
Next to make a move was Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), who was somewhat surprisingly joined by Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), the rider who was set to stand on the final podium alongside Pogačar and Vingegaard, and the winner of the youth classification.
Lipowitz and Simmons were caught with 44km remaining, the pace increasing with the first ascent of the Montmartre on the horizon, the peloton led by Tudor.
There was good reason for Tudor’s pace setting as Julian Alaphilippe launched his trademark move, followed by Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), before the yellow jersey jumped across with Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana), Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) and Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto) locked on his wheel. The group swelled over on the descent of the climb, but the group was no larger than 30 riders.
There was a second group around 20 seconds behind that featured the green jersey, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
With 34km remaining, Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) attacked from the front group, but it proved to be a fruitless task, and the Frenchman was caught as the weather became distinctly worse. Pogačar meanwhile. Always remained towards the front of the race.
Victor Campenaerts and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) led the front group onto the second ascent of Montmartre, before Pogačar injected the pace with an acceleration halfway up the climb.
Only Jorgenson, Van Aert, Ballerini, and Matteo Trentin (Tudor) were able to follow the yellow jersey on the climb, with Mohorič bridging across on the descent.
The sextet cooperated well in the treacherous conditions, and their gap to the chasers built to 20 seconds with one lap remaining.
Visma tried to use the team card with Jorgenson launching a move with 10.8km remaining, but he wasn’t able to forge clear, and the American tried twice more with 8.5km and 7.6km to go, but again, he couldn’t create a gap.
The yellow jersey led the group onto the final ascent of Montmartre and created a split, with only Van Aert able to follow. But what followed was a rare sight, the yellow jersey was distanced by the Belgian star who was on a stormer of a stage to forge clear and take his tenth and arguably most impressive stage win.
