Pogacar poised to win a record-equaling fifth Tour de France title as race enters final stage

PARIS (AP) — Tadej Pogacar is poised to win a record-equaling fifth Tour de France title when the showcase race ends with its final stage later on Sunday.

Barring mishap or a crash, the 27-year-old Slovenian star will join Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only men to win five Tours.

He has a big lead of 6 minutes, 26 seconds over Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel and Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates XRG teammate Isaac Del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut, is third at nearly 10 minutes behind.

Pogacar's biggest Tour rival has been Jonas Vingegaard, but the two-time Tour champion crashed out of the race last Sunday on stage 15. Both riders had anti-doping tests in the early hours of that morning.

Pogacar had won five stages at this year’s race and 26 overall heading into Sunday’s 21st stage, an 88.7-kilometer (55-mile) loop around Paris scheduled to start just before 6 p.m. local time.

The stage again featured the hugely popular uphill climb through the Montmartre district, a sharp 1-kilometer dash which riders tackle three times before finishing on the Champs-Élysées.

It has been an incredible year for Pogacar, who has won stage races at the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de Romandie, as well as producing some stunning victories in the one-day classics.

Pogacar won the Giro d'Italia by a huge margin in 2024 but, unlike Vingegaard and Merckx, he has yet to win the Spanish Vuelta to complete the trio of Grand Tour victories. ___

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