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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Even after Pogacar won stage four,<\/a> 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<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n 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’.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He fell 4km from the line but his GC rivals sportingly chose not to attack,<\/a> allowing Pogacar to catch up and finish in the peloton.<\/p>\n