Tadej Pogacar wrapped up his third Tour de France title on Sunday. It is arguably his most impressive.
He dethroned two-time reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard, won six of 21 stages and completed the rare Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.
Pogacar, a 25-year-old Slovenian, became the ninth and youngest man to capture a third Tour title in the race’s 111-edition history.
He completed a dominant three weeks by winning the last three stages.
TOUR DE FRANCE: Final Standings
Sunday’s 21-mile time trial from Monaco to Nice was an exclamation point. Pogacar prevailed by 63 seconds over Denmark’s Vingegaard, extending his overall margin of victory to 6 minutes, 17 seconds over the Dane.
“This is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day,” he said.
Pogacar became the first man to win six stages in a single year since Brit Mark Cavendish in 2009. It’s the most stage wins for a Tour champion since Frenchman Bernard Hinault won seven in 1979 (when there were 24 stages).
The Tour finished along the Mediterranean Sea rather than Paris’ Champs-Elysees because the French capital hosts the Olympics, which open Friday.
Back on July 2, Pogacar snagged the leader’s yellow jersey on the fourth stage in Italy. He never relinquished it.
Vingegaard had denied Pogacar a Tour three-peat in 2022 and relegated the Slovenian to runner-up again last year.
It was during stage 17 of the 2023 Tour that Pogacar cracked in the Alps. “I’m gone,” he said that day on his team radio while on the saddle. “I’m dead.”
Last year, Vingegaard’s final margin of victory over Pogacar was 7 minutes, 29 seconds, the largest at the Tour since 2014.
So Pogacar went into 2024 with a proverbial mountain to climb to dethrone Vingegaard, the former fish-packing facility worker who is two years older.
“After two hard years in the Tour de France, always some mistakes, this year everything to perfection,” Pogacar said.
Other men have had gaps between Tour titles, but under different circumstances.
In 2015, Chris Froome took back the crown after crashing out of the 2014 Tour. Alberto Contador won Tours in 2007 and 2009, and missed the 2008 Tour in between. Same with Greg LeMond, Tour champ in 1986, 1989 and 1990 who was absent from the 1987 and 1988 editions.
Pogacar is the first man since World War II to win a Tour, then get beaten at a Tour (that he finished) and then reclaim the title by beating the defending champion (who finished).
This year’s Tour was defined by historic performances. Cavendish broke Belgian Eddy Merckx’s record for career Tour stage wins (35).
Biniam Girmay of Eritrea became the first Black African rider to win both a Tour de France stage (he won three) and the green jersey as the best sprinter.
Vingegaard’s bid for a three-peat was vulnerable from the start. He had not competed since breaking his collarbone and several ribs in an April 4 race crash.
He was without two key teammates from past years. Slovenian Primoz Roglic changed teams after last season. American Sepp Kuss missed the Tour because he hadn’t sufficiently recovered yet from a COVID-19 bout.
“I would probably rate it as one of the biggest results in my career,” Vingegaard said Saturday of finishing second overall. “Noticing where I’m coming from in the last three months. From the crash, the accident there, breaking almost every bone in my upper body on the right side and puncturing both lungs. To where I am now, I’m just incredibly proud about the journey that me and my family have been on.”
Back to Pogacar, the first man to win the Tour and the Giro d’Italia in the same year since Italian Marco Pantani in 1998. Pogacar routed the Giro in May by 9 minutes, 56 seconds, that race’s largest margin in 59 years.
“If I would win only Giro, that would be already an incredible year, but to win Tour de France is another level,” he said. “To win both is another level above that level.”
The Tour, Giro and Vuelta a Espana are cycling’s three Grand Tours. Pogacar’s only Vuelta start was his Grand Tour debut in 2019, when he finished third. At 20, he was at the time youngest man to make a Grand Tour podium since 1974.
Next for Pogacar is the Paris Olympic road race on Aug. 3. He was the bronze medalist in Tokyo.
Next year, Pogacar can bid to become the sixth man to win a fourth Tour title. Or he can bid at the Vuelta to become the eighth man to win all three Grand Tours in a career. Or he could go for both.
Pogacar mentioned something else minutes after Sunday’s time trial: a world championships road race title, which he has yet to win.
After the last three weeks, and this season, nothing seems out of reach.