Tadej Pogačar won the 2021 Velo Dur, the second Tour de France win for the Slovenian, capping a season that saw him win two Tour de France races, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and two monuments in Lombardy.

The leader of UAE Team Emirates won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Vuelta a España, following compatriot and rival Primoš Roglic of Jumbo Bisma, who was runner-up to Pogachar in the Tour, and won the prestigious French He won the prestigious French prize.

Pogachar finished second to Roglic in this year's Vélo d'Or, which is selected by the French cycling magazine Vélo and the sports newspaper L'Equipe and voted on by international cycling journalists.

In addition to his victories in the Tour and Monument, Pogachar also won the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Tour of Slovenia, winning one stage in each race, plus three stages in the Tour de France.

The 23-year-old also finished second in the UCI ranking this season with 5,363 points, ahead of Jumbo-Visma all-rounder Wout Van Aert's 4,382. [Mathieu van der Pol, Annemiek van Fruten, Mark Cavendish, Kasper Asgreen, Richard Karapas, Sonny Colbrelli, Eoghan Bernal, Harry Lavraissen, and Julien Alaphilippe were nominated.

This year, the Frenchman won his second consecutive road world title, winning La Flèche Wallonne and the opening stage of the Tour, making it three consecutive seasons that he has won the award for best French cyclist.

The Deceuninck-QuickStep rider beat out mountain biker Loana Lecomte and AG2R Citroën's Benoît Cosnefroy for the award.

There is no separate women's Velo Dur award, making it almost impossible for a woman to win.