PARIS (AP) 鈥� Tadej Pogacar is poised to win a record-equaling fifth 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 , is third at nearly 10 minutes behind.
Pogacar’s biggest Tour rival has been Jonas Vingegaard, but the two-time Tour champion last Sunday on stage 15. Both riders had in the early hours of that morning.
Pogacar had won five stages at this year鈥檚 race and 26 overall heading into Sunday鈥檚 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 district, a sharp 1-kilometer dash which riders tackle three times before finishing on the Champs-脡lys茅es.
It has been an for Pogacar, who has won stage races at the and the , as well as producing some stunning victories in the .
Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia by 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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