Tadej Pogačar sealed his third Tour de France title on the French Riviera, winning the closing time trial into Nice on 21 July 2024 and completing the first Giro–Tour double in 26 years.
A home-stage time trial closes the gap to history
The final stage was a 33.7‑kilometre test from Monaco to Nice, the first time since 1989 that the Tour concluded against the clock. Pogačar, last man down the ramp, set the quickest times at both climbs and averaged 44.5 kph to stop the clock in 45 minutes 25 seconds. He crossed on the Promenade des Anglais with his sixth stage win of the race, matching the six he took at the Giro two months earlier.
One downhill attack that decided the maillot jaune
The lead changed on stage four, when Pogačar attacked 800 metres from the summit of the Col du Galibier. He crested with a small gap and pressed it on the twisting descent to Valloire. While Vingegaard limited the damage, Pogačar gained 37 seconds and never let yellow go.
“I wanted to hit hard today. I know this stage really well — I’ve been training here many days,” he told reporters. “It felt like a home stage.”
A margin not seen in his earlier Tours
His final buffer of six minutes 17 seconds was the largest of his three Tour wins. It outstripped the 5:20 over Vingegaard in 2021 and the 59‑second turnaround against Primož Roglič on debut. World champion Remco Evenepoel finished third at 9:18 in his first Tour.
The Giro–Tour double, last done by Marco Pantani in 1998, put the 25‑year‑old in rare company. “To win both together is another level above,” Pogačar said. “I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day.”
A platform already tilting toward more
Later that season he added the world road title with a 100‑kilometre solo, joining Merckx and Roche as the third man to hold the Giro, Tour and rainbow jersey in one year. Two summers later a fifth Tour win would place his name alongside the legends. Nice was not an ending but a marker where a career still climbing brushed against records already rewritten.
