Tadej Pogacar dances up Mur de Huy to claim victory in Flèche Wallonne
The world champion attacked when 400 metres from the finish on the brutally steep Mur de Huy and never looked back, prevailing over France's Kévin Vauquelin and third-placed Tom Pidcock of Britain.
The Slovenian, who was pipped by Mattias Skjelmose at the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday and by Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix after overcooking a turn, mastered the tough conditions as rain and cold weather affected the race throughout.
Sensing that his main rival, Remco Evenepoel, was struggling, Tour de France champion Pogacar launched his attack early on a hill averaging a gradient of 9.8% and quickly opened a seemingly unassailable lead.
Vauquelin distanced the skimmed bunch to take second place for the second year in a row while Pidcock grabbed the last place on the podium.
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Times
32 minutes ago
- Times
Tadej Pogacar is exceptional but I think he is also clean
The rain poured and the roads in the capital were treacherous. So dangerous that Tour de France organisers agreed time differences wouldn't count. All that Tadej Pogacar had to do to clinch his fourth Tour de France was to avoid risk. Find a safe place in the peloton and stay upright. Simple, but he couldn't do it. Like Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Pogacar could only play the man he is. So on this first occasion of a splendid new route for the final stage, he got involved in a fierce battle for the stage victory, taking the same risks as the other five riders in the breakaway. There were three ascents of the 1.1-kilometre Côte de la Butte Montmartre, and each time he attacked. Every ascent was followed by descents in the driving rain. On the last circuit, Pogacar distanced four of the five in the group but Wout van Aert stayed with him and then near the top, the Belgian counterattacked. For the first time in the Tour, Pogacar himself was distanced. Van Aert went on to achieve a famous victory, slowing down better to savour the moment as he crossed the finish line on the Champs-Élysées. For his Visma-Lease a Bike team it was a terrific end to a difficult Tour. It was the team's second stage victory and their leader, Jonas Vingegaard, finished second overall, but that was still less than they had hoped for. 'We came to win the Yellow Jersey but came up against the strongest rider in the race and best rider in the world,' Van Aert said. In dreadful conditions, it was a compelling climax that validated the decision to dispense with what had long been a ceremonial end to the Tour, a race in which little happened and almost always ended with a bunch sprint. Pogacar knew the risks of trying to win the final stage. One bad fall and that could have been him out of the race. And still, he couldn't play safe. 'I found myself in the front,' he said afterwards, 'even though I didn't have the energy to motivate myself to race. I tried but hats off to Wout, he was incredibly strong. It was a really nice race in the end today. I am speechless to win a fourth Tour. Six years in a row on the podium and this one feels especially amazing. I am super-proud to wear this Yellow Jersey. 'The second week was the decisive week where we took the decisive advantage and we went more comfortably into the final week. Battling against Jonas was again a tough experience but respect to him and big congratulations for his fight. Now it's time to celebrate. I want to celebrate with peace this week and have nice weather, not like now.' The other general classification (GC) contenders stayed well clear of the fight on that hill in Montmartre and were happy just to stay upright. Vingegaard poured every ounce of himself into the three-week battle against Pogacar and though the contest was relatively close, he lost every round. His two bad days, in the Caen time-trial and on Hautacam, were two more than he could afford. Pogacar hasn't had a bad day at the Tour since Col de la Loze in 2023. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hangrohe) and Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), who finished third and fourth, were the revelations of the race. They will now be contenders in whatever grand tour they care to ride and it will be interesting to watch Ben Healy's development. Could he too become a grand tour contender? Lipowitz, Onley, Healy and plenty of others will wonder about Pogacar, 26, and how long he can continue at his present level. Their futures are connected to his. There is an interesting conversation about this, the most recent demonstration of one rider's brilliance. Many consider this to be a compelling renewal of the greatest bike race. Others shake their heads and bemoan the predictability. Didn't Pogacar, they ask without needing an answer, drive a stake through the heart of his only rival, Vingegaard, on the first day in the high mountains? And wasn't that ten days before the end? Like beauty, riveting sport is in the eye of the beholder. There is no right answer, only opinions. Each one as valid as the next. My view is complicated by more than four decades of following and writing about the Tour. First experience was 1982, the last two days, which are generally the two least interesting. We went because that year our Irish compatriot Sean Kelly won the Green Jersey for the first time. That Sunday's finish on the Champs-Élysées was curious . It was Bernard Hinault's fourth Tour and by then, even the French were growing tired of his success. That year Hinault had taken his advantage in the time-trials and then defended in the mountains. Breathtaking, it wasn't. Towards the end, the lament was that he hadn't been able to take a proper road stage. Reacting to the criticism, Hinault contested the bunch sprint on the Champs-Élysées. It wasn't something he did often but he won it. Through rookie eyes, it seemed an unusual outcome. How could a GC rider suddenly become a bunch sprinter and beat all the specialists? One rider in that Tour said that it was either let Hinault win on the Champs-Élysées or not be invited to post-Tour criteriums in Brittany. I'm still not sure if he was joking. Back then it was common for deals to be struck between riders and between teams. Results were traded; sometimes for the promise of future help, sometimes for cash. The more you thought you knew, the less you actually knew. Two days in 1982 became two weeks in 1983, and in 1984, the entire Tour with the sacred green badge given to an accredited journalist. Though the race had a certain global appeal, no one would have mistaken it for a slick global operation. They were elite-level athletes staying in school dormitories while riding the Tour. Dormitories without air conditioning, on the hottest Tour nights. It was, though, a good race for journalists. Walk into a hotel, or indeed a school dormitory and there was a list on the wall telling the room number of each rider. No one wondered where you were going or worried too much about the demands on riders. And on the Reims to Nancy stage of the 1985 Tour, Ludwig Wynants consummated my relationship with the Tour. For years, I had struggled with a speech disorder. In any kind of pressurised situation, I stuttered. It wasn't much fun. That year I agreed to do daily reports for RTE radio from the Tour, thinking that if I could survive live radio, the speech problem would be overcome. Shock treatment, you could say. I knew from experience that words beginning with L and W were particularly challenging. So Ludwig Wynants was a nightmare. The last two words of the report delivered live on RTE that Saturday afternoon were 'Ludwig Wynants'. The name emerged almost fluently and, from that day, things improved. So I owe the Tour. The Eightiess were good: Laurent Fignon against Hinault in '84; Hinault against Greg LeMond in '85; LeMond against Hinault in '86; Stephen Roche against Pedro Delgado in '87. They were interesting races but if we'd been more honest in those, we would have wondered aloud about the abuse of testosterone, cortisone and other banned drugs. Without ever talking about it, riders informed us that what they took was their business, not ours. For the most part we agreed. There was a price to be paid for our compliance with omertà, the law of silence. In 1990 Paul Kimmage's Rough Ride was published and the ex-professional laid bare the endemic doping culture within cycling, not that many were ready to accept the truth. For this was the beginning of the EPO years and however bad things had been, they weren't getting any better. For so long, it was impossible to believe in the Tour. The Nineties were a continuation of the Eighties, the Noughties were as bad as the Nineties and then along came Team Sky, winning seven out of eight Tours. They talked of winning clean but since 2016 there has been scandal after scandal related to how that team was run. The latest surfaced two weeks ago and now the International Testing Agency has opened an investigation into former Sky, now Ineos Grenadiers', soigneur David Rozman. In 2020, along came Pogacar. The then 21-year-old won his first Tour de France. He's now ridden the race six times; four victories and twice runner-up. He improves a little every year but he is essentially the same rider now as back then, and pretty much every week of every season. There hasn't been any evidence of wrongdoing. I believe he's an exceptional, credible champion. Consequently his victories are never boring and his dominance is a joy, not a reason for suspicion. This era has been the most credible that cycling has known and it should be celebrated.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'Huge moment' as Onley matches Millar's Tour fourth place
Oscar Onley equalled the best-ever finish by a Scottish rider in the Tour de France and described his surprise overall fourth place as "a huge moment in my career" that "sparks a bit of a dream".The 22-year-old from Kelso, who matched compatriot Robert Millar's achievement in 1984, says a first attempt at chasing the top spots in general classification had been a secondary aim for Team Picnic-Post who had initially been targeting stage wins in his second Tour, told ITV Sport: "We never really had the plan to go for GC in the beginning. It was more just see how it goes." Onley added: "To be honest, I've never even thought about a top five in the Tour before, so to get it in my first try in GC is quite incredible and I'm excited for the future."After Slovenian Tadey Pogachar won his fourth Tour de France and Belgian Wout Van Aert winning the final stage in a rain-soaked Paris, Onley reflected on how he was able to compete with the top riders."It gives me a lot of confidence for the upcoming races as well as these are the top guys and in top shape in the biggest race," said the Scot now being dubbed the Kelso Comet."So if I can do it here then why not in other races?"Onley praised his team for a "really well-managed" three-week campaign."There was no pressure from the team," he said. "They've handled that really well because I think as soon as you say you are going for GC, there's a lot more attention on you."I've just taken every day as it's come really and not made any extra stress as the Tour is already stressful enough, just to ride and compete."I'm really happy with how myself and the team have managed this three weeks."Onley said he was finally able to "soak it all in" on the final climb of Montmartre and that it was "pretty special" to ride down the Champs Elysees to the finish."I guess this is a really big moment in my career," he said. "I don't really realise it yet, but I think just with talking to other riders, going forward now we have something to build on and an exciting project for the future and it sparks a bit of a dream I guess."
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Cycling great Thomas bids emotional Tour farewell
There is a scene in Goodfellas, a continuous one-take shot as iconic as the film itself, where the protagonist Henry takes his future wife Karen to an exclusive club, skipping the queue by entering via a backdoor, walking through a vast, winding kitchen and into the dining room, handing out cash and fleeting niceties to the scores of different people he passes along the may have seen it even if you have not watched the film. A table is then specially brought to the new couple, played by Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco, in a prime position near the stage, and a fellow diner sends over Sunday night in Paris, walking alongside Geraint Thomas making his way from the Tour de France finish line to his team bus felt like a cyclist's reimagining of that the 39-year-old is retiring at the end of the year, this was his final Tour, a chance to bid farewell to the race that made him a national hero when he won it in 2018. And everybody wanted a piece of in his kit, on his bike and with his five-year-old son Macs sat on the handlebar, Thomas could barely move without a hand reaching out for a high five. As he wheeled past rival team buses, riders and coaches were constantly calling his name, falling over themselves to congratulate the achievements elevate one's status in Paris like wearing the yellow jersey as the Tour de France champion, crowned atop the podium in the shadow of the Arc de he was not victorious this year, Thomas was still in demand, given his 18-year association with this grand old was the youngest rider at the Tour de France in 2007, the champion 11 years later, and now the oldest participant in cycling's greatest race - the only man in the Tour's long and storied history to have been all three."It's been amazing," Thomas told BBC Sport Wales. "Looking back, I never thought I'd be doing 14 Tours and to win it was just bonkers. I can look back with fond memories."It was something I always dreamed of doing so to have just done it and be in Paris once is special you know. To do 14 is unreal really, one hell of a journey."I'm not one to be too sentimental and look back or whatever, you're always sort of thinking of the next thing. But I guess when it comes to the end there's nothing else to look forward to is there?" Thomas is not an outwardly emotional or demonstrative person by nature, but the Tour is a race like no other, a cultural phenomenon that transcends is the reason why Thomas, as a child, begged his parents for a Eurosport subscription, why he rushed home from school to watch on TV, hooked on a sport which was something of an alternative curiosity when it came to the sporting order of things in the UK in the Tour, however, has always cut through. Mention the yellow jersey to almost anyone and they will think of this race, regardless of whether or not they've actually ever watched is why Thomas has often said that it was winning the Tour that really changed his after successive Olympic gold medals and several world titles, he was only occasionally recognised even in his home city of Cardiff when he went out with friends and once he became Tour champion, Thomas was hurled into a different was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, sat next to Nicole Kidman on Graham Norton's sofa and exchanged shirts with Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou. There were backstage passes for an Elton John concert too, what with Thomas signed up by Sir Elton's of that was remotely normal for a cyclist, regardless of how successful or likeable Thomas might be. Cycling is not a sport that lends itself to a glamorous have to sacrifice their family lives, their social lives, their diet – pretty much everything – to make it to the there is the colossal physical effort the sport was Thomas' 14th Tour, during which he has cycled for more than 1,000 hours and in excess of 26,000 miles – which is longer than the circumference of the still only makes up a fraction of the distances he will have clocked in all his other races and training sessions; literal years spent on a wonder, then, that he was ready to call it a day."It definitely feels like the right time now. It was a super hard race," Thomas said."The Tour is always hard, but the way racing is changing, not just physically, the aggression in the peloton and everything, the respect, everything is changing, so I'm definitely happy to be stepping away now." A decision on what comes next can wait. First, a chance to spend more time with Thomas sealed victory after the final time trial in 2018, the first person he saw after crossing the finish line was his wife Sara, flown in by the team bosses to surprise their new champion. On Sunday, she was by his side once more."It hasn't really hit home yet that this is the last one. We were just walking up the Champs Elysees, seeing the Arc de Triomphe and thinking, 'It's not every day you get to do this'," Sara said."It is a big part of our life but we're both very sure it's the right time to finish and excited for what lies ahead."The highs are amazing but the lows are so incredibly low that sometimes you start thinking if it's worthwhile, but then you get those amazing days again."It's going to be strange. It's going to be quite an adjustment having him always at home. It will be nice for him to do the mundane jobs, like the school pick-up and drop-off. Less travelling and being in one place for longer. I'm looking forward to that."The feeling was mutual."When you actually start to think about everything you've been through, you know, that's when it gets a bit like... yeah, it gets you," Thomas said, his voice breaking a little."They go through so much, just as much as me, if not more because they live the highs, but they live all the lows as well."And it's just been great that Macs has been able to be on the podium with me three times. Special memories."This is not quite the end of the road for Thomas, who will retire fully at the end of this year. Before then, there is time for one final race, September's Tour of Britain which will fittingly finish in a child with dreams of becoming a professional cyclists, Thomas had no Welsh role models whose paths he could follow, so he blazed his own becoming the first Welshman to win the Tour de France – having been only the second to compete in the iconic race – Thomas transformed cycling in his homeland, and secured his own legendary thousands who lined the streets of Cardiff for his 2018 homecoming were proof of that; freshly-converted cycling fans congregating to form the kind of throng usually reserved for Six Nations matchdays in the Welsh is Thomas' Tour legacy."This is where it all stated," Thomas said as he motioned towards the splendour of his Parisian surroundings."I did it my first year as a pro and was the youngest guy then and the oldest guy now, so it's full circle. It's the pinnacle of the sport, it's the biggest bike race in the world."To do 14 is unreal really, one hell of a journey."
