Much has been said about the addition of the Montmartre climb to the Paris finale, not all of it positive, but as the 2025 Tour de France drew to an end on stage 21 – the GC neutralised before the finishing circuits – the Olympic-inspired detour more than lived up to promise as Wout van Aert soloed to victory after 50 km of Spring Classic-esque bike racing.
The Belgian was one of two Visma-Lease a Bike riders to make it into the elite six-rider selection in the last 23 km, the other being fellow spring hero Matteo Jorgenson. With them were Matej Mohorič, Davide Ballerini, Matteo Trentin, and the man who started it all on the penultimate time up the Montmartre climb, Tadej Pogačar.
The presence of the yellow jersey was ominous to say the least, but after Jorgenson's chipping away at Pogačar's resolve in the run-up to the final ascent, Van Aert finally cracked the race leader about 400 metres from the Sacré-Cœur and soloed to the finish. Ballerini took runner-up spot ahead of Mohorič 19 seconds after Van Aert. Pogačar coasted across the line in fourth, one finger pointed to the sky in celebration on winning his fourth Tour de France.
With the GC neutralised 50 km out, Pogačar's rivals were able to safely pedal home in one of the many groups that had broken up throughout the wet cobble-strewn circuits.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=86016 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=86016 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
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