Tadej Pogacar will officially join an elite club of riders – Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain – to have won five yellow jerseys when he completes the Tour de France in Paris on Sunday.
The Slovenian's fifth yellow jersey was secured long before the final weekend, after victories on stage 10 and 14, and again at the Alpe's summit on Friday.
Pogacar's consistency remains astonishing. He has started nine grand tours and finished all of them on the podium. From his first victory in one of cycling's five Monument races, winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2021, he has not finished outside the top five in any of the subsequent 21 races, crashing out only once and winning 13 times.
Pogacar now has 26 career stage victories at the Tour, nine behind record-holder Mark Cavendish. He is yet to win the Vuelta a Espana, where he finished third in 2019. He is still five wins behind Eddy Merckx's total of 11 grand tour titles.
A wild and often chaotic day of racing was won by Ecuador's Richard Carapaz, wearing polka dots, who held off the chasers to claim his second stage in three days. It capped an impressive final week by Carapaz, who won the combativity award on four days and secured his place as King of the Mountains.
Pogacar scaled the Alpe in 35min 27sec, breaking a 29-year-old record. France's Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious pushed him to the end but lost by six seconds and beat his handlebars in frustration.
There are still new frontiers of grand tour racing to breach. Pogacar is yet to win the Vuelta a Espana because he's raced it only once, when he finished third in 2019. He is still five wins behind Merckx's total of 11 grand tour titles, although the Spanish race could yet be added to his palmares by the end of the year.
Remco Evenepoel finished this stage 20 in second place, which is where he will end the Tour on Sunday. The Belgian has transformed himself into an elite rider in the high mountains over the past two years and produced an outstanding performance in this Tour, yet he will still finish seven minutes behind the yellow jersey.
Pogacar can spend a truncated stage 21 in Paris soaking in the moment after three hard weeks in the saddle, before considering what's next. He may go for the missing Vuelta crown later this summer, before chasing a third successive world road-race title in Montreal in September.
Source: Yahoo Sports