Pogacar crowned Tour de France champion

PARIS: Slovenian rookie Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France on Sunday, riding triumphantly into Paris in the race leader’s yellow jersey at just 21 years old.

Pogacar became the Tour’s youngest champion since 1904 as Ireland’s Sam Bennett won the 21st and final stage after the eight-lap dash around the iconic Champs-Elysees to clinch the green sprint points jersey.

The Tour will forever be remembered for a dramatic last-gasp turnaround as Pogacar grabbed the overall lead when his rival Primoz Roglic suffered a mountainside meltdown on the penultimate day.

Bennett beat world champion Mads Pedersen in a sprint finish to take his second stage win of the Tour, having already wrapped up the points classification at the intermediate sprint of the 122km stage from Mantes-la-Jolie.

It made Bennett the first Irishman to win a major jersey at one of the three Grand Tours since Sean Kelly won green at the Tour for the fourth and final time in 1989.

Bennett launched his sprint early and briefly looked like he might be overhauled by the hard-chasing Pedersen, but he would not be denied in the race all sprinters want to win the most. Peter Sagan took third place ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Elia Viviani.

Green was the only classification left to be determined after Pogacar’s incredible ride in Saturday’s time trial on La Planche des Belles Filles saw the Slovenian secure the yellow jersey as well as the King of the Mountains’ polka dots and the best young rider’s white on his Tour debut.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Bennett said.

“The green jersey and the Champs-Elysees, the world championships of sprinting. I never thought I’d be able to win this stage and to do it in green is so special.

“And to do it too with my dream team, Deceuninck-Quick Step — the way the boys rode all day was fantastic. It’s just so amazing the feeling, I can’t thank everyone enough.”

This storied edition of the century-old race packed with thrills and spills will be equally recalled for outsprinting the dark shadow of Covid-19.

Starting two months late due to the global pandemic, the race set off under strict health guidelines in Nice with doubts it would make it all the way to Paris.