Montmartre was the missing piece in Pogacar’s Tour de France campaigns

Montmartre was exactly what the Tour de France was missing. The hill that for decades was considered entirely superfluous – because the Avenue des Champs-Élysées was more than enough to lend glamour to the grand finale of the Grande Boucle – has confirmed that it is better to have it on the route than not to have it. Much better to have it. A year ago, we watched the riders tackle the climb with the enthusiasm of a first-time experience and the inability to judge the situation dispassionately. It had all been marvellous: Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar putting on a show, the Belgian shaking off the yellow jersey and crossing the finish line first. A magical moment that left us with a doubt: had we witnessed an extraordinary event, or could it really all happen again?

We required confirmation. And perhaps we needed the foresight to add a few more kilometres between the hill and the finish line, just to add a bit of intrigue. The Tour organisers have a knack for thinking like the public – part strategist, part populist. But that’s fine.

The proof has arrived. And the compromise is perfect.

Montmartre was exactly what the Tour de France needed, and those extra four kilometres of tarmac between the end of the descent and the finish line added just the right amount of suspense – which never goes amiss.

Above all, they have allowed us to witness one of Mathieu van der Poel’s greatest masterpieces, a work of art that demonstrates a desperate ability to push beyond the limits of pain and human endurance.

On Sunday in Paris, the Dutchman defied the team’s wishes, first on the climb alongside Tadej Pogačar, then on the descent and on the flat, and again on the home straight, defending to the very limit what he had earned and felt was his. He didn’t even celebrate beneath the finish line banner. He collapsed against a barrier, gasping for air and seeking relief from the exhaustion.

The Butte de Montmartre is a generational addition, the finest gift the Tour organisers could have given to Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen and the rest – to this generation of cyclists who have revitalised the sport, widening the gaps and restoring its solitary, hermit-like nature. And it truly is a generation: Tadej Pogačar stepped onto the podium in Paris for the fifth time wearing the yellow jersey. Like those who came before him: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong did better than him, but according to the UCI, the American never existed.

And we have the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Parisians’ determination to introduce into the race what the Tour de France had always ignored to thank for all this. If this Paris is a magical spectacle – a display of faces, colours and roars that envelops the spectacle of a handful of riders eager to bring the Tour to a close by pushing themselves to the limit on their bikes – it is down to a Tour that has been able to look around, realise that tradition is not always the rule, even in cycling, and that there is room for innovation. You just have to want it. The Tour de France in Paris wanted it.