No sooner had Mathieu van der Poel crossed the line to win stage 21 of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées, than pundits and fans started throwing around the words 'best ever finale' – and they may just be right.
The Montmartre laps, born out of the Paris Olympic road race where Remco Evenepoel won gold in 2024, promised drama for the second-consecutive year. The action began on the first of three ascents – shortly after a time neutralisation saw a number of GC riders get out of the way – with Mads Pedersen laying his cards on the table. But it wasn't until the third ascent that Van der Poel made his move off the front, which only Tadej Pogačar could follow. Fully committed, the pair shared the workload in the last 9 km after the climb, but the bunch was gaining fast, with Pedersen, Biniam Girmay, Milan Fretin and Van der Poel's teammate Jasper Philipsen all present.
Both visibly tiring, the gap was only a few seconds as the pair entered the finishing straight for the last time, but it looked to be all over. Pogačar lost grip first and was swarmed over by the pack, but Van der Poel refused to give up. He still led with 100 metres to go, just as Philipsen was forced to begin his sprint off Pedersen's wheel. But the line came just soon enough for Van der Poel, who beat his own celebrating teammate to the stage win by half a bike length.
Pogačar finished safely to secure his fifth Tour de France title, with fireworks on the final day.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89796 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89796 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
Quotes of the day
If there was one race I still wanted to win in my career – I have a few of course, but this was one of them. We have a saying in Dutch that it has to come from your toes. I don’t know where this came from, but not from my toes. I don’t know where it came from.”
– Van der Poel said, his voice trembling
It was an amazing day. Yeah, I’m… I’m speechless. It’s an incredible day, an incredible atmosphere, and yeah. Happy that it’s over and that we won for the fifth time.
"Seven Tours already, and seven times on podium and five wins. It’s something that you wouldn’t even write in a story book. It’s just unbelievable also for me."
– Pogačar at the finish
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