Mathieu van der Poel has completed a sensational Tour de France triumph to sprint away from Tadej Pogacar and hold off the sprinters in a photo finish on the Champs-Elysees in a thrilling finale to the 2026 Tour de France. Tadej Pogacar has officially won the 2026 Tour de France, securing the yello...

Mathieu van der Poel won a brilliant 21st stage of the Tour de France on Sunday after escaping with yellow jersey Tadej Pogaar on the final ascent of the Montmartre climb during the Paris final.In an extraordinarily tense final, Van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took 12 seconds onto the Champs Elyses, leading a large group of chasers, including sprinters and their lead outs. With their lead down to just five seconds inside the last kilometre, Pogaar was unable to maintain his effort, but Van der Poel forged on, winning the stage by a bike length form his team mate Jasper Philipsen. Green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was third.With the GC times decided before the first of three longer laps up the Montmartre climb, which remained in the route after its debut last year, Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) confirmed his fifth overall win at the Tour de France. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was second overall and Pogaar's team mate, Isaac Del surviving a poorly timed mechanical to take third and the best young rider classification.Pogaar was never lower than fourth on GC, taking the yellow jersey on stage three, ceding it, then never relinquishing it after reclaiming the race lead on stage six. Not only that but he won five stages en route to a record equalling fifth overall win, again unarguably confirming him among the sport's greatest ever.More to follow...

The 2026 Tour de France classifications will shift across three weeks of racing, from the Grand Dpart in Barcelona on 4 July to the final stage in Paris on 26 July. Across time trials, sprint stages, breakaway opportunities, and the high mountains, each day can alter the shape of the race for the y...

Theres not enough leadership or vision from Government to say yes, we do need another tunnel, but future Ministers will blame delays on this project on everybody but the Ministers.Comment & Analysis: Irish Rail has just announced initial public consultation on FourNorth, a project designed to four-track the Northern Line between Connolly Station and Malahide. A rail project thats going in the wrong direction.To be clear: Four tracks, or more importantly, two sets of two tracks, are needed to separate Dart and Intercity services to allow for future growth of the rail system along this important corridor between Dublin, the new outer suburbs around Clongriffin where theres high-density housing, and commuter towns, and Belfast.Its just that a tunnel is a far better idea. While it might not have made the headlines until this week, Irish Rail has been working on Four North since at least 2024, and I want to be clear: Others have suggested a tunnel privately or elsewhere before I am doing so here. Its a suggestion Ive heard repeated by different people who dont always see eye to eye. A large part of the problem is the unwillingness, especially of politicians and the media, to accept the basic fact we need to invest billions in rail projects to catch up with underinvestment since the foundation of the State. In this vein, The Irish Times sends out a poor junior reporter to do vox pops, and the newspaper runs with a headline dismissing the need for the project. This is followed by an endless debate fueled by people (often newspaper columnists) spreading misinformation about public transport. Cheaper, but like BusConnects x100Building FourNorth at ground level, or just below or above it as the line is, would be cheaper than tunnelling. Building extra tracks beside the existing railway is technically possible, but a really bad idea. In some places, theres space that can be used without too much impact. Sadly, that space is not continuous. It should not be any surprise to anybody who knows the Northern Line that this project will require the demolition of a number of houses and 5-6km+ of urban trees and greenery along the tracks within the city alone. People who support the project can make all the arguments in the world about the common good, and Ill agree with them. The problem is that the opposition to this will be like BusConnects on steroids. And BusConnects showed that too many of our politicians are willing not only to represent people, but to make hay of issues.There will be quite a lot of disruption from this project stations will need to be relocated, road bridges will need to be extended, footbridges replaced if possible, and the Dart and Belfast services put off the rails for extended periods of many months.Businesses, parts of school yards, sports pitches, green areas, parts of farms, even playgrounds could be affected. Nothing that cannot be overcome, but BusConnects and other projects show that, along with legitimate concerns, a lot of political hay will be made.Many gardens will be affected, and unlike BusConnects, these will be back gardens which these days are more like extensions of houses. And because of the elevated or trench-like nature of different parts of the line, even the need for temporary possession of some extra lengths of land will eat into gardens quite a lot.Opposition on a project like this can delay it by years or even a decade or more. Adding risk and cost. But this kind of politically fueled indecision and delay is the kind senior politicians often shy away from talking about.MetroLink will involve demolishing a city centre apartment block and other properties, but its not the same thing. The need for a mostly underground metro to be able to build stations in congested areas is more understandable for the general public than four-tracking an existing railway line.The sad fact is that suburban house owners hold more political clout than city centre apartment renters or owners.A key difference is also that the plan for four-tracking in the All-Island Strategic Rail Review plans to have the intercity line divert away from the Northern Line after Clongriffin to link with the airport and bypass the current line this M1-aligned rail corridor is even mentioned in the Four North consultation page. A tunnel would not be a downgrade; itd be an upgrade.IMAGE: Extract from the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.For intercity or other express services to the airport and towards Belfast, a more direct tunnel as in the image below makes more sense. And Im not saying thats the only option that should be looked at this is the perfect time to look at the full Belfast-Dublin-Cork connection. A vision for a connected island. Clearly it still is a big ask to add another mega project, but for the Four North project, were talking about a project which isnt going to see the light of day at least until most of the current Dart+ projects are finished. If were to follow what experts have said, we should have a tunnel project lined up well in advance of MetroLink being finished. This could be it.We need the ability to say that Ireland will need decades to catch up on our public transport infrastructure and to be clear, this would be of regional and national benefit, not just another project for Dublin.The tunnel might cost more, but looking at it as an option now is a far better idea than trying to plough ahead with surface four-tracking only to find out its politically untenable or that the delays are so significant that tunnelling would look better and better as the years drag on.IMAGE: The existing Northern Line in green and the concept of a more direct tunnel in blue.

Tadej Pogacar has joined an even more exclusive club. The Slovenian claimed the 2026 Tour de France on Sunday for the fifth time in his career, matching the greatest legends of the Grande Boucle. After crossing the line in Paris, where he even fought for the stage win with Mathieu van der Poel befor...

Red Bull - BORA Hansgrohe and Remco Evenepoel leave the 2026 Tour de France satisfied after they picked up a second place general classification and two stage wins as the curtain closed on the 2026 Tour. Sports director Patxi Vila believes that we are witnessing the best version of Evenepoel as he s...

For a brief moment, the dream was alive. On the final time up the Cte de la Butte Montmartre on stage 21 of the Tour de France, British champion Fred Wright attacked, and was off the front of the bike race.The Pinarello Q36.5 rider lit the race up on the cobbles through, until his move was shut down by yellow jersey Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and former world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech). The 27-year-old kicked off what would become the winning move of the stage, as Van der Poel held on for victory on the Champs-lyses."The adrenaline got me through," Wright said after the finish, where he finished 25th. "My hand is so sore. It's really sore now, it's hitting me. It was a nice way to end the Tour. I was floating nicely on Bini's wheel but with the headwind I just got a bit blocked.""I was dying a bit, I got a bit excited," Wright continued. "I saw a yellow bike on my inside, I thought it was Pogi but it was Florian [Vermeersch]. Maybe it was a bit foolish, but at least I was at the front end of the bike race. If you don't try you never know."It's really special. I feel a bit sick to be honest, I got through that on a lot of mental energy rather than physical today. My brain is all over the place."Shown the pictures on TNT Sports in the UK after the finish, Wright said: "That's pretty cool. It's just a shame I had that crash a few days ago, that would have given me a bit of energy. In 20 minutes I'm going to forget it all, have a beer and a pizza, and love the fact I was on the front on Montmartre."It's like an out of body experience. Tom [Pidcock] asked me in the race how I was, and I said I don't know. I'm not going to forget that for a long time.""I was so gutted on stage 17 because I had a crash and the break had gone at that point. To be able to race at the front today was a pleasure. I wanted to do that more this Tour. First Tour for this team, we can be really happy with it [Pinarello Q36.5 finished their maiden Tour de Tour with Pidcock in 9th]."

The Tour de France is often shaped as much by survival as by strength. Across three weeks of racing from the Grand Dpart in Barcelona on 4 July to the final stage in Paris on 26 July, crashes, illness, heat, fatigue and withdrawals can quickly reshape the peloton, from nervous sprint stages and exp...

An injured Mathieu van der Poel sat and watched the 2025 Tour de France finale and promised himself that the 2026 Champs-Elysees would look different. As the 2025 edition brought a revamped finish of the race with a short Montmartre climb offering something for the classics. Sunday evening certainly...

Twelve months ago, Tadej Pogaar seemed pretty done at the end of his fourth Tour de France victory. The Slovenian was tired, and, as it later emerged, injured, and was ready to go home. He spoke of burnout, of fatigue, and didn't seem to be enjoying the world of cycling that he dominates that much.Twelve months on, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider seems rejuvenated, ready to go again. Rejuvenated enough to light up the final stage of the Tour de France, as other general classification rivals sat back, rejuvenated enough to keep winning until stage 19 of the race, rejuvenated enough to even hint that he might tackle the Vuelta a Espaa. Asked about his burnout, and his apparent lift in mood this year in his winner's press conference, Pogaar nods, smiles, recognises that this year has felt more comfortable."I didn't say last year I was burning out, but I was well aware that it could happen," he explained. "I'm also aware now. The burnout doesn't mean you're sad one day, or you don't feel one day on the bike, it means chronic fatigue and you're not happy on the bike when you go riding. Everything feels like a job. "I'm aware that this can happen if you push too hard. That's why I don't want to say I go to Vuelta, I go to that. I need to think about this. Keep the feet on the ground."Pogaar has now won five Tours de France, putting him on the same level as the legends of the race: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. There seems no reason to bet against him not winning a sixth next year or that his reign of dominance will end soon. (Image credit: Getty Images)However, history doesn't mean much to the Slovenian; he likes winning things, but is not a student of the history of pro cycling."Right now, I just want to enjoy the moment of winning the Tour, if it's fifth or the first it doesn't matter," he said. "It's unbelievable to wear the yellow jersey and cross the finish line in Paris winning it. I will just enjoy the moment, not thinking about any history, not thinking about any clubbing or whatever. I just want to enjoy this moment, and come back home and enjoy the small things in life. I'm really happy and proud to win the fifth Tour. "Every single one of them has a different story, a different meaning, different emotions. Each one of them feels incredible and emotional for me."On his potential participation at the Vuelta, the only Grand Tour he hasn't won yet, which would complete the set of Grand Tours, he said: "Right now, if it it starts tomorrow, I would say no. In two weeks, I can still decide."There is no rush for the Vuelta, it could be done next year, or the year after. Time is on his side, he is just 27 after all, but this Tour also felt like one where the baton began to be passed on. In the yellow jersey, he helped his 22-year-old teammate Isaac del Toro to third overall, and the white jersey, while 19-year-old Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) finished third. The Pogaar era is not coming to an end, but things are shifting."I will definitely not be doing this for a long time," he said after stage 20, but at his current rate, it will not take a long time for Pogaar to win everything."The next generation is looking very sharp, and I'm happy to have Isaac on my side," he said on Sunday night. "Maybe I can be a kind of mentor, maybe I can teach him a thing or too, but he's already quite smart. Other young riders are coming up, super strong, and we will see. It's a good future for cycling what is coming in the next years. I think."(Image credit: Getty Images)Such is Pogaar's dominance at the Tour de France 26 stages in seven editions, five overall wins in that time, a record-breaking time up Alpe d'Huez this year that there is a cloud of suspicion over his performance levels. At this year's race, Pogaar and his main rival, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) were awoken in the middle of the night ahead of stage 15 of the Tour de France by anti-doping testers, a scenario reserved by the UCI's rules for "serious and specific suspicions"."In my opinion, 2am for Jonas was crazy. 5am was also a little bit weird," Pogaar said in his post-race press conference, when he was asked if he understood the suspicion. "Definitely not the weirdest. Since I'm riding the Tour in 2020, we've had crazy controls, before queen sstages a lot of times, almost every Tour. Four or five times, out of seven that I did, [there was] a control in the stage before the bus, 30 minutes. This is even weirder, but they're doing their job. It's part of my life. "When I hear a knock on my door, the first thing is that it's a control here. For me, it's like going to the supermarket. For me, it's nothing unusual anymore because I have so many in the last years that it's really part of my life now."However, right now, Pogaar is done. Not in a terminal way, as it seemed last year, but in the press conference. With a mic drop, he leaves the stage, ready for celebration. He no longer seems on the edge of burnout, instead comfortable in the knowledge he is the greatest rider of all time.