Pogacar’s fourth Tour de France win continues a remarkable 12 months for the Slovenian superstar, in which he has established himself as the dominant figure in modern cycling.
After regaining the Tour title from Jonas Vingegaard last year, Pogacar won four of his final five races in 2024, becoming the road world champion for the first time last September.
Then over the start of this year, Pogacar won six of his nine races before the Tour. He won both of the stage races he entered – the UAE Tour and Criterium du Dauphine – and he won four of the seven one-day classics he contested, finishing on the podium in the other three.
That meant that he was not just top of the UCI rankings coming into the Tour, he had twice as many points as his closest rival, Remco Evenepoel.
Over the past five years, Pogacar and two-time Tour winner Vingegaard developed one of the greatest rivalries in sport, but anyone hoping for another epic battle for the yellow jersey over the past three weeks were left disappointed.
Even after Pogacar won stage four, Vingegaard was only eight seconds behind, but the Dane shipped over a minute on the following day’s time trial, when Pogacar claimed the overall race lead for the first time.
Pogacar not just survived his first major test during stage seven, he clinched victory on the iconic Mur-de-Bretagne climb to regain the ‘maillot jaune’.
Vingegaard stuck with Pogacar over the next few days, with Ireland’s Ben Healy spending two days in the yellow jersey, although there was one moment of panic for Pogacar on stage 11.
He fell 4km from the line but his GC rivals sportingly chose not to attack, allowing Pogacar to catch up and finish in the peloton.
They may have rued that decision the following day, as Pogacar triumphed on this year’s first summit finish and first true mountain stage to put another two minutes into Vingegaard.
He would remain in yellow for the rest of the Tour, winning the following day’s mountain time trial for his fourth stage win of 2025 and his 21st overall.
Visma-Lease a Bike were clinging to hope they could crack Pogacar once the race reached the Pyrenees and the Alps, but he was imperious in the mountains as the only time Vingegaard gained time was two seconds on stage 19, when he was resigned to finishing as the ‘best of the rest’.
Vingegaard battled on gamely, but Pogacar has gone to another level over the past year, and time is on his side as he aims to become the greatest cyclist of all-time, not just the modern era.
