Tour de France Stage 21: Van Der Poel Takes Electrifying Win After Fireworks on Montmartre Climb

Mathieu van der Poel took an incredible victory on the final stage of the Tour de France, going clear with Tadej Pogačar on the last of three ascents of the Montmartre climb and just about holding off the chasing bunch at the line.

The stage was an incredible finale to the Tour, with Pogačar cracking on the finishing straight and Van der Poel’s teammate edging out Mads Pedersen for second, inches behind the stage winner.

Van der Poel slumped to the ground exhausted, lying in the fetal position against a barrier gasping for breath.

“I was already a year thinking about this,” the Alpecin – Premier Tech rider said several minutes later, still looking drained. “The way it went, it’s a dream. It’s incredible.

“It was super hard and to be up there with the best rider in the world. All my respect for Tadej. I thought we were going to be caught back. I just put my head down and I was waiting until the wheel came past and it didn’t come past.

“We never give up. The start of our Tour was not good. To win on the Champs, it’s pretty good. I am super happy. If there was one race I still wanted to win in my career, this was one of them. I don’t know where it came from.”

It was perhaps the most incredible of Van der Poel’s many victories, with Pogačar giving everything to take a sixth stage win but not quite having enough.

However he sealed his fifth GC win in the Tour with a flourish, equaling record holders Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain with a characteristic aggressive display.

He backed off once Van der Poel gapped him and savored his victory, ending the race 6:26 ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and 9:42 ahead of his own UAE Emirates-XRG teammate Isaac Del Toro.

‘An incredible day’

The GC victory is the 127th win of his career, and sets him up for what is expected to be a tilt at the Vuelta a España and a bid for a rare grand tour double.

He wouldn’t be drawn on that in post-stage comments, but was happy to talk about what was a stomping performance in Paris.

He was to the fore on each of the ascents of Montmartre, then followed Van der Poel when the Dutchman floored it just before the summit the third time up.

The two of them gave it everything in the finale, with Van der Poel having a little more left in the tank inside the final kilometer.

He’d love to have won in Paris, but he had a lot to celebrate anyway with his fifth Tour win.

“It was an amazing day. I am speechless, it was an incredible day, an incredible atmosphere,” he said.

“I am happy that it is over and that we won for the fifth time.”

Brilliantly suspenseful finale

The final stage was cut in distance and had a modified start location as a result of wildfires elsewhere in France. Pogačar, his team and the other classification winners celebrated as usual early on, but racing ramped up as the Paris laps ticked down.

The riders had five laps of the traditional finishing circuit and then three of the modified Montmartre course, which this year had a longer gap from the summit to the finish line. The idea was to have a more finely-tuned balance between the attackers and the sprinters, something which ultimately went exactly to plan.

Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarché) was aggressive early on, then Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello Q36.5) and Thibault Guernalec (Total Energies) led onto the first of three ascents of Montmartre. Azparren pushed forward but was caught at the summit by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who led Pogačar, Van der Poel and several others going into the descent.

A lead group of 14 formed but was soon reeled in by the remains of the peloton. Pogačar’s UAE Team set things up prior to the second ascent of Montmartre, where the race leader powered clear. Only Van der Poel was the only one able to hold him.

The Dutchman moved to the front just before the top, with Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hangrohe) joining 1km after the summit.

Pedersen managed to bridge with 22km left, yet the Decathlon reeled them all in with 19km remaining.

The final ascent of the climb saw Van der Poel and Pogačar again the strongest, going over the summit in that order. They worked brilliantly together to fend off a strong chase group comprising Matteo Jorgenson and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Per Strand Hagenes, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious).

Those riders chased hard but were ultimately mopped up by the Decathlon team with just over 3km to go. Van der Poel and Pogačar still had 12 seconds there, and while the gap was being steadily eroded they were still ahead racing onto the finishing straight.

Van der Poel was marginally stronger there and made one last effort, going clear of Pogačar and just about fending off those chasing behind, led home by his teammate Jasper Philipsen.

It was a huge win and a brilliantly dramatic conclusion to the Tour.