Pogacar shows he's a fantastic Tour winner, but gets dropped by van Aert on Montmartre

The mood before the final stage of the Tour de France was as usual. There was plenty of laughter, and everyone was relaxed, except perhaps Iván Romeo, who appeared heavily bandaged at the start after his crash on Saturday. At least he could ease into the race, as the first kilometers of the ride to Paris were very quiet, as always.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pogacar took the opportunity to show themselves at the front, after which the teams of green jersey wearer Jonathan Milan and white jersey wearer Florian Lipowitz also seized their moment. The first hill was also a moment for a ceremonial sprint: Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) repeated their sprint from the first stage, minus the crash.

After that, it was up to UAE to take control. The pace skyrocketed: we had a normal race again. There were no breakaways: traditionally, those only come after the first passage of the finish line. Even before the peloton arrived in Paris, it was announced that it was not dry in the capital.

With the cobblestones of Montmartre approaching, the question was whether it would become chaotic. A response from the organization was inevitable. The A.S.O. decided to take the times from the fourth passage of the finish line: even before the climb to Montmartre, the GC contenders would be able to take it easy.

Approaching the last 50 kilometers, several riders still wanted to push on. Magnus Cort and Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X, for example, but only after the intermediate sprint (won by Milan) and after the safe passage of the finish line for the last 50 kilometers, it was Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), in third place and white jersey wearer Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) who broke away.

Approaching the first climb up Montmartre, the much-discussed and once again incredibly busy cobblestone climb through the center of Paris, the duo was gone, and the peloton stretched out through the streets of the French capital. Tudor launched an attack by Julian Alaphilippe, and he joined Arnaud De Lie of Lotto. But when they looked back, they saw him coming: Pogacar. Wout van Aert, among others, was able to keep up.

After the first time up Montmartre, a group was able to come back, mainly because it started to rain heavily, and Pogacar did not want to take any risks. Van Aert got Matteo Jorgenson and Victor Campenaerts to work for him, De Lie saw fast men Kaden Groves and Biniam Girmay join them, and XDS Astana also had three men among the first. Campenaerts ensured that a second group, including Milan, was left behind, with the gap to the second climb up Montmartre already 48 seconds.

On the penultimate climb through the crowd, it was Pogacar who attacked again, but it wasn't super steep, so a few others were able to follow. Van Aert and Jorgenson were present, with Davide Ballerini joining on behalf of Astana, and Matteo Trentin representing Tudor. Thanks to a kamikaze descent by Matej Mohoric, there were now six riders in the lead, with the first pursuers ten seconds behind and one more climb to Montmartre ahead.

The time for waiting or hesitating was over. All six riders at the front saw their chance: Ballerini, Van Aert, and Trentin with a strong sprint, Jorgenson and Pogacar strong on the climb, and what did Mohoric have in store? Together they rode to the bell on the Champs-Elysées with a 25-second lead. At the foot of the climb, the lead was three-quarters of a minute, and Pogacar went all in. The Slovenian knew he had to attack alone, but Van Aert was able to follow and even overtook him on the way to the top. Pogacar couldn't follow!

Where Van Aert took all the risks on the wet cobblestones, Pogacar logically did not. The gap quickly grew to more than ten seconds, and once downhill, the group with Jorgenson (who had already tried three times before the climb) caught up with the yellow jersey wearer, as did Mohoric and Ballerini. And so it was decided, Van Aert rode solo to a magnificent stage victory on the final day of the Tour, and Pogacar will not have been dissatisfied with this stage and claims his fourth overall victory in the Tour to cap it all.