Tadej Pogacar now has his fourth Tour de France yellow jersey, leaving him just one more away from joining the club of the greatest of all time, if he isn’t already. All this after a spectacular stage featuring the introduction of the circuit from the last Paris Olympic Games to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Tour de France’s arrival on the Champs-Élysées.
The Tour de France has given us a tremendous classic with the introduction of the Montmartre climb, which was already a decisive part of the Paris Olympic Games race last summer.
A spectacular route that he didn’t want to miss, not even the rain that appeared in the final part of the stage, leaving the route, with its cobblestones and tricky corners, extremely dangerous. From the very start of the stage, the organizers decided to end the time counting for the overall standings at the fourth finish, before tackling the final climbs to Montmartre. The first part of the stage unfolded as these final days in Paris usually do, with the typical team photos, the jersey wearers, and the champagne toast—things you only see in cycling during a competition.
Fortunately, from the finish on the Champs-Élysées, the stage really began to unfold, although in the first four laps, with the traditional Champs-Élysées circuit as the stage, no breakaways prospered thanks to the strong pace. In fact, the last of these stages saw the day’s Intermediate Sprint, which, once again, went to Jonathan Milan, already a brilliant winner of the green jersey.
From then on, it was all-out war from the first climb up Montmartre, where the first to initiate hostilities was Julian Alaphilippe, along with Arnaud de Lie. This led to the race being broken up by Tadej Pogacar, who was unnecessarily in the lead, having already stopped the timekeeping, who had already taken the lead and neutralized this first breakaway. Other GC riders, such as Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, would not do so, simply letting the pace take them from there to the finish.
On the second climb, Tadej Pogacar was once again the protagonist. The Slovenian didn’t attack, but he did set an intense pace that reduced the group to just five: himself, Ballerini, Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, and Matteo Trentin, who would be joined, on an almost suicidal descent, by Matej Mohoric. They opened a definitive gap on their pursuers and would be the ones who would play for victory on the third and final climb.
A climb on which Tadej Pogacar refused to speculate and set a tremendous pace from the bottom, breaking the group. Only Wout van Aert was glued to his wheel, and when the pace was highest and the climb steepest, he went into classics mode on the puddled cobblestones of the Montmartre climb to launch a breakaway worthy of his best years and become the only rider in this Tour de France to break away from Tadej Pogacar.
From then on, the dangerous descent was tense, but today no one was going to take away from Wout van Aert the great victory he had been seeking since his terrible crash last year in La Vuelta a España. An image that caps off another edition of the Tour de France that saw the crowning of a Tadej Pogacar for whom adjectives are running out.
Tour de France (2.UWT)
Results Stage 21 | Mantes-la-Ville – París (Champs-Élysées) (132,3 km)
| 1 | Wout van Aert | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 3:07:30 |
| 2 | Davide Ballerini | XDS Astana Team | 0:19 |
| 3 | Matej Mohoric | Bahrain Victorious | 0:19 |
| 4 | Tadej Pogacar | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | 0:19 |
| 5 | Matteo Jorgenson | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 0:26 |
| 6 | Matteo Trentin | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | 0:38 |
| 7 | Arnaud De Lie | Lotto | 1:14 |
| 8 | Kévin Vauquelin | Arkea-B&B Hotels | 1:14 |
| 9 | Mike Teunissen | XDS Astana Team | 1:14 |
| 10 | Dylanv | Cofidis | 1:14 |
Ranking General
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | 76:00:32 |
| 2 | Jonas Vingegaard | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 4:24 |
| 3 | Florian Lipowitz | Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | 11:00 |
| 4 | Oscar Onley | Team Picnic PostNL | 12:12 |
| 5 | Felix Gall | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 17:12 |
| 6 | Tobias Halland Johannessen | Uno-X Mobility | 20:14 |
| 7 | Kévin Vauquelin | ARKEA-B&B HOTELS | 22:35 |
| 8 | Primoz Roglic | Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | 25:30 |
| 9 | Ben Healy | EF Education-EasyPost | 28:02 |
| 10 | Jordan Jegat | Team TotalEnergies | 32:42 |
Source: www.brujulabike.com