Van der Poel wins Tour de France finale on Champs-Élysées as Pogačar seals fifth overall title

Van der Poel's Montmartre masterclass

Mathieu van der Poel won the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, holding off the chasing sprinters by centimeters after a searing attack on the Montmartre climb. The 31-year-old Dutchman had already won stage 9 earlier in the race and now has four career Tour stage victories, adding to his wins in 2021 and 2025. The stage was shortened because emergency services were needed for forest fires elsewhere in France; the approach to Paris was cut, leaving only the circuits through the capital. The route included three passages of the Rue Lepic on the Montmartre hill, a 1 km climb at a gradient of just over 6%, first introduced for the 2024 Olympic road race.

On the first ascent the peloton stayed largely together, but the second passage saw Tadej Pogačar and Van der Poel accelerate hard, with Mads Pedersen and Remco Evenepoel briefly joining before the sprinters' teams reeled them back. The third and final climb was decisive. Van der Poel attacked with such force that only Pogačar could follow, and the pair opened a gap that the chasing Decathlon-led peloton struggled to close. In the final kilometer, Van der Poel dropped Pogačar and went solo, crossing the line with teammate Jasper Philipsen finishing a few centimeters behind. Van der Poel collapsed against a barrier after the finish, completely spent.

Pogačar joins the five-win club

Tadej Pogačar finished safely in the chasing group to secure his fifth overall Tour de France title. The 27-year-old Slovenian now stands alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to win the Tour five times. Pogačar previously won in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. His only defeats in that span came in 2022 and 2023, when he was beaten by Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard abandoned this year's Tour after a crash in stage 15. Remco Evenepoel finished second overall, and Pogačar's UAE teammate Isaac Del Toro took third.

The shortened finale

Organizers cut the stage's approach to Paris because emergency services were diverted to fight wildfires in other parts of France. That left only the city circuits: six laps of the traditional Champs-Élysées loop, followed by three laps that included the Montmartre climb. The climb, discovered for the 2024 Olympic road race, had already produced a dramatic finale in 2025 and did so again. The first two passages thinned the field but did not create lasting gaps; the third shattered the peloton and set up Van der Poel's winning move.

Other jerseys and performances

Mads Pedersen won the green jersey as the points classification winner, attacking early on the cobbled climb to force a selection. French debutant Paul Seixas, riding for Decathlon, finished fourth overall at age 19 and even took turns on the front to chase for his sprinter Olav Kooij in the finale. Kooij's lead-out train, with Daan Hoole and Seixas working, closed to within seconds of Van der Poel and Pogačar but could not prevent the stage win. Jasper Philipsen took second on the stage, just failing to overhaul his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate.

Van der Poel's Tour legacy

Van der Poel's victory on the Champs-Élysées was his second of this Tour, after stage 9, and his fourth Tour stage win overall. He had worn the yellow jersey in earlier editions and now adds a Paris stage to a palmarès that already included wins in 2021 and 2025. The French television commentator repeatedly called the performance "monumental" as Van der Poel collapsed on the cobbles, having given everything to hold off the sprinters by the narrowest of margins.