Van der Poel wins final stage of Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées

Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel won the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. After a nerve-wracking finale, in which he won the stage by a slim margin, he managed to stay just ahead of his teammate Jasper Philipsen.

It was already clear that the Tour winner would be Tadej Pogačar. He secured the win for the third time in a row and for the fifth time in his career, making him a joint record holder for the number of Tour victories.

But Van der Poel had been dreaming about winning the Tour de France stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris for a year, he said right after the final stage had ended. "When I was sick last year and had to watch this race on television, I was already thinking about this moment," said Van der Poel.

"It is incredible. It was super tough to pull away from the best rider in the world, all respect to Tadej."

On the final climb of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre, Van der Poel launched an attack, and only Pogacar had an answer. In the final kilometer, the Dutch athlete rode away from the Slovenian and narrowly stayed ahead of the sprinters giving chase.

"I was waiting for a wheel to pass me, but it just didn't happen," said Van der Poel. "At the last moment, I saw a Pirelli wheel next to me and it was Jasper's." His teammate, Jasper Philipsen, won the chasing group’s sprint and finished second, ahead of green jersey wearer Mads Pedersen.

"It shows that we never give up. The start of the Tour wasn't good, but winning on the Champs-Élysées, that's pretty good I think," said the Dutch man.

"We have a saying in Dutch, ‘It has to come from your toes,’" Van der Poel continued. "I don't know where this came from, but in any case, not from my toes."