Slovenia’s Pogacar wins Tour De France for a third time

TADEJ Pogacar secured his third Tour de France title with another show of strength, bossing the closing time trial to claim a sixth stage win of this year’s race and his third in as many days.

Pogacar’s lead of more than five minutes starting the day left him free to take it easy on the 34km route between his adopted home of Monaco and Nice, but the Slovenian’s insatiable appetite for success showed in the risks he took on the descent off the Col d’Eze to beat his great rival Jonas Vingegaard.

The top three on the general classification finished in the same positions on the stage, with Pogacar clocking a time victory of six minutes and 17 seconds, reclaiming the Tour title Vingegaard has held for the last two years, and confirming him as the first man to complete the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

“I can’t describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France where there were always some mistakes,” Pogacar said.

“This year everything was to perfection, I’m out of words. I’m super happy to win here, incredible.

“I think this was the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day.

“Even in the Giro I had one bad day but I won’t tell which one. But this Tour was just amazing, I was enjoying it from day one until today.”

Pogacar joked that he had to go for victory on this stage, having driven his fiancee - the Slovenian national champion Urska Zigart - mad with the number of times he had insisted on riding it while training.

The 25-year-old’s sights will now be firmly set on the world championships which are being held in Switzerland in September and the opportunity to become only the third man to complete cycling’s unofficial ‘triple crown’ - last achieved by Stephen Roche of Ireland in 1987.

Pogacar said: “Some people might think the Giro was a safety net if I didn’t succeed in the Tour and, for sure, it would be - if I only succeeded in the Giro it would still be an incredible year, but to win the Tour is another level and to win both is another level.”