The 2024 Tour de France wrapped up on Sunday with two historic moments that will be remembered for years in cycling: Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar etched his name into the sport’s record books by securing his fifth overall title, while Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel pulled off a nail-biting victory on the iconic Champs-Élysées that capped a stunning turnaround for his team.
Pogacar’s fifth Tour win puts him in an exclusive group of all-time cycling greats, joining legends Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to claim five overall titles at cycling’s most prestigious Grand Tour. But rather than dwelling on his place in history, the 25-year-old Slovenian said he is ready to step away from the pressure of competitive racing and savor quiet life after three weeks of grueling competition across France.
“Right now I just want to enjoy the moment of winning the Tour,” Pogacar told reporters after crossing the finish line in Paris. “If it’s the fifth or the first, it doesn’t matter — it’s unbelievable to wear the yellow jersey and to cross the line in Paris winning it. I will just enjoy this moment, not thinking about any history, not thinking about joining any club. I just want to live this moment, come back home, relax, enjoy the small things of life.”
Pogacar added that each of his five Tour victories holds a unique place in his heart, saying: “I’m really happy and proud to win a fifth Tour. Every single one has a different story, a different meaning, different emotions. Each one of them feels incredible and unbelievable for me.”
While Pogacar took home the overall yellow jersey, the final stage belonged to van der Poel, a cobbled classics specialist who achieved a long-held career dream with his dramatic win on Paris’s most famous avenue. The 31-year-old broke away from the peloton alongside Pogacar on the Montmartre climb, where thousands of cheering fans packed the route to create a electric atmosphere. The two riders held off a chasing group of sprinters for 10 kilometers, pushing all out to hold their lead to the line.
In the final 700 meters, van der Poel surged ahead alone as a fatigued Pogacar was unable to match his acceleration. In the end, the Dutchman held off the chasing pack by the thinnest of margins, forcing a photo finish that confirmed his win. “It was no words, no communication, we just both rode to the death, to the final and I ran out of gas,” Pogacar said of the final sprint. “I knew that we had to go all out, he knew we had to go all out, we both committed and he took a beautiful victory.”
Van der Poel admitted he never expected to hold off the chasers all the way to the line, saying he spent the final 500 meters bracing for a rider to pass him. His Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen came the closest, with van der Poel only spotting the Belgian’s wheel alongside him in the final meters. “I thought we were going to get caught back, but then I was just thinking about this moment, and I just put my head down in the last 500 metres,” van der Poel said. “I just went as hard as I could, and I was just waiting until a wheel was coming past, and it didn’t happen… In the very end, I see a Pirelli tyre next to me, and it’s the one from Jasper.”
The win marked a bright end to a difficult Tour for van der Poel and his team, a outcome he said proved the squad’s resilience. “It just shows that we never give up. Maybe the start of our Tour was not good, but I won on the Champs Elysees. I think it’s pretty good,” he said. When asked where he found the strength to hold on, van der Poel joked: “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!”
Behind Pogacar in the overall classification, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel secured the best result of his Tour de France career, finishing second overall with two stage wins including a victory in a high mountain stage. The performance silenced critics who had claimed Evenepoel, a renowned time trial specialist, was not built to contend for overall victory at three-week Grand Tours, even after he won the 2022 Vuelta a Espana. Evenepoel said the result proved he deserves to dream of winning the Tour one day.
“Second place, for me was more like the fact to prove towards myself that I did well to not let go my dream of stepping on the podium of Grand Tours as much as possible and aiming to try to win them,” Evenepoel said. “Because that’s my career goal. After this result, I think I’ve shown towards myself, my team and also to the outside world that I deserve to dream and aim for that.”