With his biggest rival Jonas Vingegaard unable to beat him, Pogacar celebrated his Tour victory in style with a convincing win in the time trial that finished in Nice, taking his 17th stage win in his already illustrious Tour career.

The 25-year-old Slovenian cyclist also became the first cyclist to win both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.

“Winning both at the same time is a level higher,” said Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates. “I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was confident every day. Even at the Giro I remember having one bad day. This year the Tour was just amazing. I enjoyed it from day one.”

The two-time reigning champion Vingegaard from Denmark came in second overall. He also finished the 21st and final stage in second place.

Pogacar won the 34-kilometre time trial on the roads of the French Riviera from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes and 24 seconds. Vingegaard was 1 minute and 3 seconds behind him and Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel 1:14 behind him in third place.

In the general classification, Vingegaard finished 6:17 behind Pogacar and Evenepoel was third overall, 9:18 behind Pogacar – whose other Tour victories came in 2020 and 2021.

“I am super happy. I can’t describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France,” Pogacar said. “This year (it was) everything perfect.”

The race did not finish in Paris as usual because of the Olympics. Mayor Christian Estrosi of Nice called the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the southern French Alps “perfect cycling country.”

From early Sunday morning, fans gathered along Nice’s popular Promenade des Anglais to secure a spot where they could best see the cyclists.

Some fans chanted “Remco, Remco” as the specialist raced past them against the clock.

They may have been surprised to see Pogacar going all out.

After his explosive attack on Friday, Pogacar said he would not try to win Saturday’s stage. He won it anyway, becoming only the second man to win five mountain stages in a single Tour, after Italian rider Gino Bartali in 1948.

Pogacar led Vingegaard by 5 minutes and 14 seconds. But the temptation of another stage win proved too strong and he flew over the winding roads past the picturesque Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer on his way to Nice, where the route flattened out again.

Pogacar held up three fingers as he approached the finish line and a sixth stage win in this year’s Tour, matching the number of stages he won when he dominated the Giro d’Italia.

It was Pogacar’s largest margin of victory in his three Tour victories, surpassing the 5:20 lead he had over Vingegaard three years ago, but remaining below the 7:29 lead Vingegaard had over Pogacar last year.

The battle with Vingegaard was not as exciting as it could have been under different circumstances.

Vingegaard, 27, spent nearly two weeks in hospital in April after a high-speed crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, only to resume competitive racing at that Tour.

“Normally I would be disappointed with my Tour de France. But after everything I’ve been through, I can’t be disappointed,” Vingegaard said. “I would have liked to go one step further, but it is what it is. I would like to come back to the Tour de France and win it again… I believe the yellow jersey is the most beautiful jersey in cycling.”

Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won the polka dot jersey for best climber, while Eritrean Biniam Girmay won the green jersey for best sprinter and 24-year-old Evenepoel crowned his fine Tour debut with the white jersey for best young rider.

“I feel like I’m floating on air. It’s super fun,” Girmay said. “I just want to tell the young kids: Keep working hard and anything is possible.”

Barbara Surk, an Associated Press editor in Nice, contributed to this report.

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