PARIS, July 26 : The Tadej Pogacar who won the Tour de France on Sunday with a record-equalling fifth title, and his third in a row, was a different man to the rider of last year.The grumpy Pogacar of the 2025 Tour's third week when, he later said, he had knee issues, gave way to a joyful one in this year's edition, mainly due to his plan to help teammate Isaac del Toro secure third place overall.The sight of Pogacar leaving the press conference room on Saturday singing "Torito", in reference to Del Toro, highlighted his lightness over the three-week race.Pogacar's dominance was such a matter of course that he offered the second-stage victory to Del Toro in Barcelona, regardless of the bonus seconds he could have gained with the win.
The Slovenian eventually claimed five stage wins on this Tour, taking his tally to 26 in seven editions. He made the difference on the first major high-altitude day, during stage six, which tackled the Col du Tourmalet.WINS IN HARD STAGES"Pogi" was already holding a commanding lead of more than two-and-a-half minutes over Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard when he put the hammer down in Le Lioran's stage 10.The competition eased with Vingegaard's withdrawal on stage 15 following a crash, hours after the Dane and the Slovenian had been woken up in the night to undergo anti-doping tests.Even then, Pogacar was not the most vehement rider against night-time controls, a response which drew criticism within the peloton.With two-time Tour winner Vingegaard out, Pogacar turned into a dream teammate for Del Toro, while making sure he himself secured some of the hardest stages of this edition, including Le Markstein on stage 14 and the feted Alpe d'Huez on Friday's 19th stage.Once it was clear that he would join greats Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx on five Tour victories, Pogacar paced Del Toro to the top of the Plateau de Solaison on stage 15 and seemingly let Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, second overall, claim the stage win.On Saturday's penultimate stage, the yellow jersey holder spent much of the day supporting UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Del Toro, who strengthened his grip on third place overall, behind Evenepoel and ahead of French prodigy Paul Seixas."Maybe people will talk about how I helped Isaac to arrive on the podium but first of all, he helped me to arrive in yellow," Pogacar said on Saturday. "It was an honour to ride for Isaac the last two hours, or the last hour-and-a-half, of the race. I did it with pleasure, and I realised how hard it is to work for somebody else."Coming together through the line, I think it's quite a memorable achievement," Pogacar added, minutes after they had crossed the finish while making a 'bull salute' with their fingers on their heads.This 113th edition showed that UAE have more than one ace up their sleeve should Pogacar call it quits or skip the Tour one year.Mexican Del Toro, who is only 22, climbed on to the podium in his first Tour de France appearance, and for the second time on a Grand Tour following a second-place result on the 2025 Giro d'Italia."I will definitely not be doing this for a long time and Isaac has shown great potential," said Pogacar, 27. "But we don’t put any pressure on him. He’s still young, he’s a quick learner, super smart and has a big talent and big engine so let’s see where the road takes us."Del Toro is under contract with the team until 2029, a year before Pogacar.Following his five Tour titles and his 2024 Giro triumph, Pogacar has yet to win the Vuelta a Espana to become the ninth man to win all three Grand Tours and cement his place among cycling’s greats, or perhaps as the best of them.It seems only a matter of time.
