Tadej Pogacar closed out a supreme 21-day performance to win the Tour de France in Paris on Sunday, crushing his rivals in the 3,400km slog to rack up a fourth title.
Wout van Aert won the final-day cliffhanger on the cobbled roads of Montmartre, but Pogacar was spared any late challenge when rain forced times to be neutralised to avoid potential accidents.
Pogacar gamely tried for the stage win anyway before Belgian Van Aert pulled away from the Slovenian on the last climb.
The winner was clearly enjoying himself as he played to the delighted crowds, racing to the head of the peloton near the Moulin Rouge cabaret at the foot of the climb.
Despite the rain, spectators packed Montmartre to follow his progress up and down the narrow lanes of the popular tourist spot in his leader's yellow outfit.
Van Aert produced a well-timed attack to drop Pogacar and charge to the Champs-Elysees finish line, for his second last-day stage win there.
Pogacar was fourth on the day but after wins in 2020, 2021 and 2024, he proved untouchable again in the world's greatest bike race.
Jonas Vingegaard, the Dane who won in 2022 and 2023, suffered two shocking off-days and ended second overall, 4min 24sec adrift.
Breakout German star Florian Lipowitz took third on his debut, rounding out the podium a distant 11 minutes off the pace in third.
Turning the Screw
Defending his title Pogacar, embarked from the start in Lille clear favourite and won four stages along the way.
In the first week, he struck on rolling runs in the north and west at Rouen and the Mur de Bretagne.
He then turned the screw on the slopes of the Pyrenees on week two with his rivals as good as vanquished.
Vingegaard suffered on the stage five time trial, and again in week two at the Hautacam mountain, leaving the Dane in shock as his form abandoned him.
In need of a massive turn around in the Alps to overturn a four-minute deficit, Vingegaard was game enough to go all in on stage 18, producing a brave 71km attack as Pogacar sat on his rival's wheel.
A barnstorming first week of the Tour revealed a raft of emerging stars.
Lipowitz was given a run for his money for third place by 22-year-old Scot Oscar Onley, whose steady ride propelled him to fourth overall.
Ireland's Ben Healy bagged a stage win and a two-day stint in the yellow jersey.
Adding a heroic near-miss on Mont Ventoux was enough to earn Healy the prize for combativity, voted for by the public.
The return of Dave Brailsford from his role at Manchester United to Ineos Grenadiers was overshadowed by the team's Italian powerhouse Filippo Ganna falling early on stage one. He was withdrawn due to concussion.
Having previously masterminded seven Tour de France wins, Brailsford dug in and the team's Dutch climber Thymen Arensman pulled off heists in the Pyrenees and the Alps with well-executed attacks to win two stages.
Another Dutch rider, Mathieu van der Poel, lit up the first week, sealing a stage two win and twice wearing the yellow jersey.
France's sole and unexpected stage win came on the lunar-like summit of Mont Ventoux thanks to Valentin Paret-Peintre.
The 2025 Tour, however, will be remembered mainly for Pogacar's all-round dominance.
With AFP
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