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.”
