Mathieu van der Poel turned the final stage of the Tour de France into a proper race and then won it, breaking away on Montmartre before holding off the chasing peloton all the way to the Champs-Élysées. It was a rare finish to the Tour: not a ceremonial roll into Paris, but a late attack that demanded timing, strength and nerve.
Tadej Pogacar had already secured his 5th overall Tour de France title before the final stage, but that did not stop the closing day from becoming one of the most dramatic of the race. Van der Poel and Pogacar attacked on Montmartre, and for a while the gap stayed open even as the pressure behind them mounted.
Van der Poel chose the decisive moment
The key to the win was not just the attack itself, but the way Van der Poel kept going when the race was still in danger of snapping back together. With 5 seconds left after the tunnel, Van der Poel and Pogacar still had a slim lead. With 10 seconds left at one kilometer to go, the advantage was still being defended. Even with 15 seconds left, Seixas had pulled back six chasers while Van der Poel and Pogacar remained in front.
That kind of finale suits riders who are prepared to take a risk. Van der Poel did exactly that in the final corner, where Cofidis moved up for Fretin, and he went solo. From there, the job was simple in theory and much harder in practice: stay clear long enough to win in Paris.
Jasper Philipsen takes second behind Van der Poel
At the finish on the Champs-Élysées, Van der Poel crossed first and Jasper Philipsen came home second. It gave Alpecin-Premier Tech a strong end to the Tour, with the team finishing the race with three stage wins.
The result also underlined how unusual this final stage was. Rather than a controlled procession ending in a sprint, the racing on Montmartre created a real showdown, and Van der Poel was the rider who handled it best. For more on his Tour success, see Mathieu Van Der Poel seals third Tour stage win after all-day breakaway gamble pays off.
In the end, the final day belonged to the rider willing to make the race hard. Van der Poel did that, Pogacar was part of the move, and Paris got a finale that felt far more like a classic stage than a parade.
