Van der Poel wins thrilling final stage of the Tour de France
Mathieu van der Poel finished the 2026 Tour de France in the most spectacular way possible, winning Stage 21 ahead of his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Jasper Philipsen, who crossed the finish second.
The final stage had the beautiful scenery of Paris as a backdrop. With around 10 kilometers to go, Van der Poel launched a decisive attack together with the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). As the two riders entered the final kilometer with their advantage down to just a handful of seconds, Pogačar could not hold the pace and was swallowed up by the charging peloton. Van der Poel, however, found one last surge and held on to take the win by a bike length, with Philipsen sprinting through from the group to close in the second place ahead of green jersey winner, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
In a post-race interview, the Dutchman admitted he had expected to be caught before the finish line. “I was waiting for a wheel to pass me, but it just didn’t happen. We have a saying in Dutch: it has to come from your toes.”
Second place for Millie Couzens at 2026 Baloise Ladies Tour’s prologue
The start of 2026 Baloise Ladies Tour kicked off with a 3.9-kilometre ITT through the Dutch city of IJzendijke. And Millie Couzens was among the fastest to complete the course. With 4 minutes and 45 seconds, she finished the prologue second.
The 22-year-old British rider held the hot seat until Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon Sram) beat her time by 5 seconds. The podium was completed by Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek).
Charlotte Kool also finished fifth and is now the leader of the best Dutch rider classification. A great start for FENIX-Premier Tech, which is now second on the team’s classification.
