He is only 22 years old but he is already entering the pantheon of cycling. Tadej Pogacar, impressive ease from the start, won his second Tour de France in a row, Sunday in Paris. The Slovenian of the UAE Emirates team, well above all his rivals, also takes down the jersey of the best climber and that of the best youngster, as a symbol of his relentless (and sometimes disgusting) domination.
The other great man of this 21st and final day of racing is the Belgian Wout Van Aert, winner in the sprint on the Champs-Elysées. The Belgian from the Jumbo-Visma team, with impressive versatility, thus takes away his third stage victory in the 2021 edition, after those of Mont Ventoux and the time trial on Saturday. Van Aert was notably ahead of Mark Cavendish, third, and who therefore failed to break Eddy Merckx’s record (34 stage wins for both). The 36-year-old Briton consoles himself with the green jersey of the best sprinter, the only one who escaped the glutton Tadej Pogacar.
Wout van Aert wins on the Champs-Elysées!
Perfectly led by Mike Teunissen, Wout van Aert resists the return of Jasper Philipsen and Mark Cavendish to win a 3rd stage on this #TDF2021pic.twitter.com/LGavP2IlDD
– France tv sport (@francetvsport) July 18, 2021
A gap of more than five minutes on the second, the Danish Jonas Vingegaard
In the final standings, Pogacar is clearly ahead of the Dane Jonas Vingegaard and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, present for the first time on the podium. The gap between the first two, over five minutes, is even the largest since 2014 and the success of the Italian Vincenzo Nibali.
If he maintains such a level, the Slovenian can therefore legitimately aspire to the record of five victories on the Grande Boucle, and thus join the greatest legends of cycling. Eddy Merckx, the most famous of them, describes an “exceptional rider”, who is “ready to win yet more Tours de France”. Tadej Pogacar, who is also capable of winning in one-day races (winner of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic this year), has everything to become the new “Cannibal”.
The complete list of the Tour de France 2021
The honor roll:
General classification: Tadej Pogacar (SLO / UAE Emirates)
Mountain classification: Tadej Pogacar
Points classification: Mark Cavendish (GBR / Deceuninck)
Youth rankings: Tadej Pogacar
Team standings: Bahrain
Combativeness: Franck Bonnamour (FRA / BB Hotels)
The final general classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO/UAE) 82 h 56:36.
2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN / JUM) at 5:20.
3. Richard Carapaz (ECU/INE) 7:03.
4. Ben O’Connor (AUS / AG2) 10:02.
5. Wilco Kelderman (NED/BOR) 10:13.
6. Enric Mas (ESP / MOV) 11:43.
7. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ/AST) 12:23.
8. Guillaume Martin (FRA / COF) 15:33.
9. Pello Bilbao (ESP / BAH) 16:04.
10. Rigoberto Urán (COL / EF1) 18:34.
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