It's a mark of the great champions to raise their game when the challenges are at their toughest, and on a dauntingly technical and difficult final stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, Wout Van Aert proved his star status is still fully justified with a spectacular solo victory over a rival of the calibre of Tadej Pogačar.
The Visma-Lease a Bike racer had won in a bunch dash for the line on the Champs Elysées in 2021, clinching a remarkable double when he conquered the Tour's final time trial on stage 20, then added a sprint win on the Sunday in Paris.
But this victory, on a rain-soaked, risky circuit over the Montmartre climb in a radically altered finale to the Tour, was surely even more memorable, particularly when Van Aert managed to drop no less a figure and standout favourite than Pogačar.
"I started the final ascent on Tadej wheel, but it was actually always my plan to attack on the final climb," Van Aert said after taking the tenth Grand Tour stage win of his career, Visma's second in the 2025 Tour and his first since conquering one of the Giro's most coveted victories across the gravel roads of Tuscany to Siena.
"I thought that there would be a bigger group when we went up the last ascent, but especially with Matteo [Jorgenson, teammate] in the front group, though, there was a chance we could come together and play cards differently towards a sprint if we had needed to do that."
Van Aert's ability to count on Jorgenson was crucial in other ways too. After Pogačar had carved down the lead group first to 27 and then to just half a dozen on the first two ascents of the Montmartre, Jorgenson and Van Aert were the only breakaway riders with a teammate in the front. The American repeatedly tested the water in the approach to the climb and a race with more than a whiff of a one-day Classic, his moves both kept the opponents working harder, and as Van Aert said, gave Visma two different cards to play.
As for how it compared to his other victory of 2025 in Siena in the Giro, curiously enough Van Aert also had a UAE Team Emirates-XRG opponent and GC contender as a rival: Isaac del Toro. But beyond the team connection, Van Aert said there was little in common with the two.
"To be honest, in Siena, I was more fighting to hold Del Toro's wheel, I knew when I passed him I could win," Van Aert revealed.
"This was a very confusing finale in Paris, radio was just noise, people screaming, so I had no idea of how big my gap was. It was a weird feeling and only realised coming onto the finishing straight that I had such a big margin. I was not really prepared for these emotions.”
Van Aert's victory, taken at the end of an uneven Tour de France, also enabled him to claim Belgium's sixth stage win of the race, with two going to Tim Merlier and one apiece to Remco Evenepoel, Jasper Philipsen, Tim Wellens and the last one of all to the Visma racer.
Only three editions have been more successful for Belgium, Sporza pointed out, while Van Aert also continues the run of Belgian men's cycling triumphs in Paris, given riders from that country have won the Olympic time trial and road race - also taken over the Montmartre by Evenepoel - and the three previous Champs Elysées bunch sprints in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Montmartre now has an even more special place in the hearts of Belgian fans, but when asked if the experience should be repeated, Van Aert said that it had been important that the clock had been stopped for the GC contenders even before the first ascent.
"I did enjoy it because it was quite selective after that, and there was a a small group in the front, it was how it should be, the guys who wanted to do it, can take the risks and go for it, and those that didn't, didn't have to fight for it," Van Aert explained.
"But if the GC times had not been taken earlier, in my opinion, it would have been impossible to create a safe race on this circuit. As it was, today was still an exciting race, riders were going for the stage victory. That was the best for everybody."
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