Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France for the third time and celebrated in style with victory in Sunday’s final stage, a time trial that finished in Nice.

The 25-year-old Slovenian cyclist is 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.

Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of 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 Remco Evenepoel 1:14 behind 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.

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. But the UAE Team Emirates rider couldn’t resist and won it to become only the second man to win five mountain stages in a single Tour, after Italian rider Gino Bartali in 1948.

Pogacar did not need to attack on Sunday either, as he had a lead of more than five minutes over Vingegaard last night.

But the temptation of another stage win proved too great and he flew over the winding roads past picturesque Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer towards 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 – the same number of stages he won when dominating the Giro d’Italia.

It was Pogacar’s biggest margin of victory in his three Tour victories. Three years ago he surpassed Vingegaard’s 5:20 lead, but last year the 7:29 lead over Pogacar was smaller.

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.

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.