On a sun-drenched Champs-Élysées, Tadej Pogacar completed a journey that places him among the rarest figures in sporting history — a fifth Tour de France title, shared only with Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain. At 27, the Slovenian has arrived at a threshold where individual greatness begins to strain the very competition that produced it. His victory is both a celebration of human possibility and a quiet provocation to the sport he now so thoroughly commands.
Pogacar wins record-equalling fifth Tour de France as Van der Poel takes final stage
Something you wouldn't even maybe write in a story book
Mark
What does it mean that Pogacar has now equalled five Tour victories? Is that the ceiling, or could he go further?
Mimi
He's joined the pantheon—Merckx, Hinault, Indurain. But the difference is that he's 27 and still improving. Whether he stops at five or pushes toward six or seven is entirely his choice now. The sport doesn't have the mechanism to stop him.
Mark
The booing during the race—that's unusual for cycling, isn't it?
Mimi
It speaks to a real problem. When one rider is this dominant, the narrative flattens. There's no suspense, no genuine threat. Fans want to see a race, not a coronation. Some people are openly frustrated that the sport has become less interesting to watch.
Mark
What about Vingegaard's crash? The timing with the anti-doping test feels significant.
Mimi
It does, though we don't know what it means yet. The test was unusual—nighttime, rare. His crash was also unusual for him. Whether there's a connection, whether the test results will ever be public, whether it matters—those are all open questions the sport hasn't answered.
Mark
Is there anyone who can actually challenge him next year?
Mimi
Evenepoel finished six minutes back and he's improving. Seixas, the 19-year-old Frenchman, has real potential. But potential and actually beating Pogacar are different things. He's won almost every major race in cycling. The bar is extraordinarily high.
Mark
What does his own team think about him helping Del Toro on Alpe d'Huez?
Mimi
It's smart cycling. Del Toro got third overall, the young rider's jersey went to his teammate. Pogacar sacrificed a stage win to secure that. It's the kind of decision a truly dominant rider can afford to make.
O Pulso
- Pogacar's dominance was so complete — five stage wins, a record on Alpe d'Huez, rivals left six minutes behind — that booing crowds began to signal not hostility but a kind of helplessness.
- Jonas Vingegaard, his most credible challenger, crashed out on stage 15 with a broken collarbone the morning after an unusual 2 a.m. anti-doping test, casting an unresolved shadow over the race's integrity.
- The final stage was cut short as wildfires raged in southwestern France, and Mathieu van der Poel seized the moment, attacking through Montmartre's streets to claim a stage victory that felt almost defiant in its human scale.
- A 19-year-old Frenchman named Paul Seixas finished fourth overall, and cycling's faithful are already looking to him — and to Remco Evenepoel — as the sport's best hope for a future with genuine rivalry.
- The question circulating now is no longer whether Pogacar can win again, but whether the sport can remain compelling while one rider stands so far beyond the rest.
On a sun-drenched Champs-Élysées, Tadej Pogacar completed a journey that places him among the rarest figures in sporting history — a fifth Tour de France title, shared only with Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain. At 27, the Slovenian has arrived at a threshold where individual greatness begins to strain the very competition that produced it. His victory is both a celebration of human possibility and a quiet provocation to the sport he now so thoroughly commands.
Tadej Pogacar rolled down the Champs-Élysées on Sunday as a five-time Tour de France champion, joining the four men — Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain — who had reached that number before him. At 27, and in his third consecutive victory, the Slovenian described the achievement as something "you wouldn't even maybe write in a story book." The weight of it seemed to surprise even him.
His dominance across three weeks was nearly total. Five stage wins, a record-breaking ascent of Alpe d'Huez, and a final overall margin of more than six minutes over Belgium's Remco Evenepoel told the story plainly. He even sacrificed a potential stage win on Saturday's brutal climb to help his 22-year-old Mexican teammate Isaac del Toro secure third place on the podium — a gesture that revealed both tactical intelligence and a kind of generosity unusual at the summit of sport.
The race's final stage was shortened from 133 to 89 kilometers after emergency services were redirected to fight wildfires in southwestern France. In the reduced distance, Mathieu van der Poel launched a decisive attack through the narrow streets of Montmartre, held on past the Sacré-Cœur, and crossed the line before collapsing beneath a barrier to catch his breath. It was one of the few moments in three weeks that felt genuinely beyond Pogacar's control.
The absence of Jonas Vingegaard — who crashed out on stage 15 with a broken collarbone — left questions that have not yet been answered. The International Testing Agency had conducted an unusual 2 a.m. anti-doping test on the Dane the night before his crash, citing "exceptional circumstances." Pogacar was tested at 5 a.m. Results remain unpublished, and scrutiny of the ITA's procedures has followed the race into its aftermath.
Pogacar's 127 career victories now span nearly every monument and grand tour cycling offers. Yet his supremacy has produced an unexpected friction — fans booing along the roadside, not out of contempt, but from a frustration that competitive balance itself seems to be slipping away. Into that uncertainty steps 19-year-old Paul Seixas of France, who finished fourth overall and showed enough on the climbs to be spoken of as a future rival. For now, though, the record books belong to Pogacar, and the sport is quietly reckoning with what comes next.
Tadej Pogacar crossed the finish line on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday afternoon as part of the peloton, his fifth Tour de France victory now secured. The 27-year-old Slovenian rider, competing for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, has joined an exclusive club of cycling immortals—Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain—each of whom won the race five times. It is his third consecutive victory, and the weight of the achievement seemed to strike him as almost implausible. "It's something you wouldn't even maybe write in a story book," he said afterward, his voice carrying the tone of someone still processing what his own body has accomplished.
The final stage belonged to Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, who launched a decisive attack with 11 kilometers remaining, riding hard through the narrow, winding streets of Montmartre and past the Sacré-Cœur basilica. Pogacar, who had dominated the entire three-week race with an explosive acceleration and relentless pace that left his rivals without answers, began to fade in those final kilometers. Van der Poel held on, crossing the line and collapsing off his bike, breathing heavily beneath a barrier for several minutes. Jasper Philipsen, his Belgian teammate, finished inches behind in second place. The stage had been shortened from 133 kilometers to 89 kilometers after emergency services were redirected to combat wildfires in southwestern France.
Pogacar's dominance this year was nearly absolute. He won five stages outright, including a record-breaking performance on Alpe d'Huez during stage 19, where he sealed victory with such authority that it seemed to underscore the gap between him and every other rider in the race. His only real challenger was Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, who finished six minutes and 26 seconds behind in second place overall. Third went to Pogacar's Mexican teammate Isaac del Toro, a 22-year-old who benefited from Pogacar's tactical support—the Slovenian even sacrificed his own potential stage victory on Saturday's brutal climb to consolidate Del Toro's position on the podium.
The absence of Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, who had won in 2022 and 2023, shaped the narrative of this race in ways both obvious and troubling. The 29-year-old crashed on stage 15 while navigating an easy right-hand bend, breaking his collarbone and forcing his abandonment. The crash was uncharacteristic for a rider known for near-perfect technique. What followed was scrutiny of the International Testing Agency, which had conducted a rare 2 a.m. anti-doping test on Vingegaard the night before his crash. The ITA cited "exceptional circumstances" for the nighttime testing, which typically requires additional authorization. Pogacar himself was tested at 5 a.m., as were other riders. The results remain unpublished.
Pogacar's record now stands at 127 victories across an eight-year elite professional career. He has won nearly every major race in cycling—the Tour of Flanders, the Giro d'Italia, Milan-San Remo, the Road World Championships, Giro di Lombardia, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Yet his dominance has created an unexpected tension within the sport. Some fans booed him during the race, frustrated that his performances have become so far ahead of his peers that competitive balance itself seems threatened. The question of whether cycling can sustain itself as a compelling spectacle when one rider is this superior has begun to circulate seriously among observers.
Young talent is emerging, however. France's Paul Seixas, just 19 years old and riding for Decathlon-CMA CGM, finished fourth overall, 11 minutes and 56 seconds behind Pogacar. He showed strength on the climbs but faded substantially on Saturday's queen stage. Many in the sport believe Seixas will become a genuine rival to Pogacar in the years ahead. For now, though, the record books belong to the Slovenian, and the conversation has shifted from whether he can win again to whether anyone else ever will.
Citações Notáveis
It's something you wouldn't even maybe write in a story book, and it's unbelievable for me.— Tadej Pogacar
We have a saying in Dutch that it has to come for your toes. I don't know where this came from, but not from my toes.— Mathieu van der Poel, on his final stage victory
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