Tadej Pogacar Claims Second Straight Tour de France Title

A dominant month produced an unassailable lead for Slovenia’s young champion in a cycling race shadowed by new cheating claims.

Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia won his second straight Tour de France on Sunday, entering a new era of dominance after reigning over his adversaries for nearly two weeks and leaving little room for any serious competition. The race’s outcome had been known for days, and Pogacar, 22, entered the traditionally celebratory final stage with an unassailable lead of 5 minutes 20 seconds, a margin he maintained as he crossed the finish line. Even after Pogacar’s eighth-place finish in the time trial on Saturday, fans of the Tour were left with the overwhelming impression that there was limited competition for the young champion. In fact, Pogacar would step onto the podium in Paris three times on Sunday, donning the yellow jersey for the general classification winner, the polka-dot jersey awarded to the Tour’s top climber and the white one awarded to its best young rider. He won the same three jerseys last year, when he became the Tour’s youngest winner in the post-World War II era.