{"id":829221,"date":"2026-07-27T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829221\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:13:10","slug":"zonneveld-pogacar-let-van-der-poel-win-at-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829221\/","title":{"rendered":"Zonneveld: ‘Poga\u010dar let Van der Poel win’ at Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 21st stage of the Tour de France was one to remember. Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> and Tadej Poga\u010dar put on a spectacular show, after which the Dutch rider from Alpecin-Premier Tech just managed to stay ahead of the closing peloto<\/a>. It was an iconic finish to the Tour, and Thijs Zonneveld<\/a> is at a loss for words to describe the spectacle.Pogacar accelerated on the final climb up Montmartre, but Van der Poel surged past him. Together, they rode full throttle to the finish, after which Van der Poel dropped the yellow jersey wearer in the final kilometer. It seemed impossible, but he stayed just ahead of the sprinters<\/a>. \u201cWhat a great sport this is! This is the kind of cycling you want to show your kids,\u201d Zonneveld exclaims in his podcast In de Waaier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He hopes the organisation will stick with the new format, used for the first time last year, forever. \u201cIsn\u2019t this absolutely awesome? To tear through Paris like that, up and down Montmartre, and to have the best riders of their generation, a truly special generation, going all out in the final Tour? Not: \u2018Let\u2019s take it easy, no risks\u2026\u2019 No, Mathieu calls out to Tadej: \u201cOf course I\u2019m coming out to play!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mads Pedersen and Remco Evenepoel were also in the mix: that quartet broke away on the penultimate lap. \u201cThose four! Man, oh man. We\u2019re blessed to be able to watch cycling in this generation.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019s also deafeningly boring\u2014we\u2019ve talked about that enough. But these guys have a combination of talent, fun, and, let\u2019s face it, a bit of ego. They\u2019re the kind of guys who dare to challenge each other in areas that don\u2019t necessarily suit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"van-der-poel-pogacar\"\/Zonneveld: ‘Poga\u010dar let Van der Poel win’<\/p>\n

The four riders were caught just before the bell, so we were able to start over at Montmartre. Van der Poel and Poga\u010dar once again proved to be the strongest there. It was reminiscent of the many duels these titans have fought, from the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix to the world championships. It was, once again, a special sight.<\/p>\n

“The greatest rider of all time and one of the greatest classics riders of all time, who rode together as a pair to the finish line, just like in the Trofeo Baracchi (a team time trial, ed.),” Zonneveld explains. \u201cThey were occasionally helped by the motorbike, it has to be said. But you can see that even the best riders in the world and a cooperative peloton are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Dutchman, Pogacar may have deliberately helped Van der Poel secure the victory. \u201cIf things had gone just a tiny bit differently, either Philipsen, Pedersen, or\u2014for all I care\u2014Max Kanter would have won the stage, were it not for the fact that Pogacar gave it his all to set the pace. He practically provided a lead-out: you can\u2019t call it a gift, because he had to work hard for it. But Poga\u010dar let Evenepoel win, he let Del Toro win, and now he\u2019s letting Van der Poel win, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"van-der-poel-philipsen\"\/Zonneveld appreciates Philipsen’s ‘classy’ gesture<\/p>\n

He then finished it off in phenomenal fashion. \u201cWhere Van der Poel finds that last kilometer is a real mystery to me.\u201d The peloton was practically on top of him, and then he goes for it one more time, with a heart rate of 200 and lactate in his little toe. You think: there\u2019s no way he can stay ahead here, but somehow he manages it anyway. If you did that in a movie, you\u2019d think: come on. A bad American Hollywood movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zonneveld then burst into laughter as he crossed the finish line. \u201cIt\u2019s a photo finish, where he\u2019s half a wheel ahead of Philipsen.\u201d Did the Belgian, Van der Poel\u2019s teammate, hold back to let the Dutchman take the win? \u201cMaybe a little. It\u2019s a classy move. For all we know, Kanter could have powered right past him. And Kooij was still in the mix, too\u2014he\u2019s certainly not the slowest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the analyst also had words of praise for the aggressive Pedersen, who finished third in Paris after three grueling and attack-heavy weeks. \u201cTo those who thought it wasn\u2019t a well-deserved green jersey\u2014that\u2019s just nonsense, of course. It\u2019s just a points system, isn\u2019t it? These are the rules. I really enjoyed watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 21st stage of the Tour de France was one to remember. Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,13633,82,1422,139657,262636],"class_list":["post-829221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-thijs-zonneveld","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}