PARIS (AP) — Tadej Pogacar won a record-equaling fifth Tour de France title on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Slovenian dominated this year's race to join Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to win five Tours.
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After finishing safely in Sunday’s 21st and final stage in Paris, Pogacar finished 6 minutes, 26 seconds over Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel in the overall standings.
Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates XRG teammate Isaac Del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut, was third at 9:42 back from Pogacar, who smiled and held up his hand to signify his wins. His teammates then joined him as they stood proudly on the Champs-Élysées.
Pogacar won five stages at this year’s race to take his impressive tally to 26 overall.
He tried to win on Sunday, too, but victory ultimately went to Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who just held off the chasing pack on the home straight for his second stage win at this year's race and fourth overall.
Sunday’s 88.7-kilometer (55-mile) stage looped around Paris and was mostly processional, although less so than in previous years, which were usually entirely flat stages for sprinters and not for the rest of the peloton.
For the second straight year the stage featured the hugely popular uphill climb through the Montmartre district, a sharp 1-kilometer dash which riders tackled three times before finishing on the Champs-Élysées.
It proved even too much for Pogacar, who could not match Van der Poel's raw power in the closing stages.
Shortly before 6 p.m. local time, Pogacar shook hands at the start line with Evenepoel and Ecuadorian veteran Ricardo Carapaz, wearing the polka-dot jersey for the best climber.
Van der Poel and Dane Mads Pedersen, the green jersey winner as best sprinter, were among the expected contenders for the stage win.
Crowds roared as the riders began the first climb up Rue Lepic in Montmartre, with the famed Sacré-Coeur basilica looming over them.
Pogacar moved ahead after the second ascension of Montmartre, with Van der Poel, Evenepoel and Pedersen alongside him.
Van der Poel attacked on the third and final climb with Pogacar responding well, and the one-day classics rivals surged ahead.
But they were caught with 700 meters left and, after Pogacar faded, the 31-year-old Van der Poel still had work to do.
He got his bike just over the line ahead of Belgian Jasper Philipsen, his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate, and Pedersen. Pogacar eased up and finished 30th.
Van der Poel is widely considered one of the best cyclists in the world. He has multiple victories in one-day classics and Cyclo-cross world championship titles, and is also a former world road race champion.
His maternal grandfather was French cyclist Raymond Poulidor, who raced in the 1960s and ’70s, finishing second on the Tour three times and third five times. Nicknamed “Poupou” and “The Eternal Runner-up,” he was adored by French fans.
The nine-stage women’s Tour starts in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Aug. 1 and finishes in Nice on Aug 9.
Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt won on debut last year. ___
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