Tadej Pogacar equals record with fifth Tour de France victory
Tadej Pogacar secured a fifth overall win in the Tour de France on Sunday, bringing him level with the sport’s most decorated champions. The Slovene joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin on the list of five-time winners, while Mathieu van der Poel took the final stage on the Champs-Élysées.
Pogacar’s triumph marks a milestone in his career and in the history of the race, placing him alongside four riders who previously reached the same total of victories. The deciding day produced a dramatic finale on Paris’s avenues after action on the climb of the Butte de Montmartre. Van der Poel’s performance in the closing kilometres provided a memorable finish to the three-week event, earning him his second stage victory of the race.
The stage concluded with an attacking move on the final ascent of the Butte de Montmartre, where Mathieu van der Poel and Pogacar broke clear together. From there van der Poel went on to hold off the chase group of sprinters on the Champs-Élysées by a tyre’s width to claim the stage. That success represented van der Poel’s second stage win of this year’s Tour and capped a tense, closely contested finale in Paris.
Pogacar’s overall victory on Sunday places him in the company of five-time champions Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin. Each of those names represents a chapter in Tour de France history, and Pogacar’s result adds him to that exclusive roll call. The achievement underlines his consistency and strength across the varied terrain of the three-week race.
Eddy Merckx, often mentioned among the greatest figures in cycling because of achievements beyond the Tour, offered a view on Pogacar’s prospects after the finale. “I don’t think he’ll be content just to draw level with me and the other champions,” the 81-year-old Belgian said. “He’ll soon break our record for Tour victories.”
Sunday’s racing combined tactical aggression on the climbs with a high-stakes dash on the Champs-Élysées, producing both an overall landmark for Pogacar and a dramatic stage success for van der Poel. The result ties Pogacar with the sport’s most successful Tour riders and leaves open the prospect, voiced by Merckx, that he may pursue further victories.