The Tour de France and the Power of Shared Wins

The Tour de France is over again. Three weeks are simply too short.

And this was one of the best editions I can remember. Huge respect for the route design: Barcelona, two stages featuring Alpe d’Huez, and that sensational new finale in Paris. Finally, a closing stage where more than the last five minutes mattered.

There were so many great stories. Visma dominating the team time trial. Mads Pedersen fighting for green. The battle between Carapaz and Valentin Paret-Peintre for the polka dot jersey. Attacks, tactical battles and stages that remained open until the very end.

There were also difficult moments: the crash involving Jonas Vingegaard on stage 15 and Florian Lipowitz on stage 16, the fires in southern France and the extreme heat.

Tadej Pogačar winning the Tour was no surprise. What impressed me most was how he won it.

Of course, he took several stages in dominant fashion. But for me, his greatest performance was not in those victories.

On stage 2, he let Isaac del Toro take the stage win, earning him a wave of new fans in Mexico.

After his crash on stage 15, Isaac later explained that in that split-second he had to choose between trying to avoid the crash and risking taking Tadej down with him, or going down himself — so he chose the latter.

On stage 20, Pogačar did everything he could to help Isaac secure third place overall and retain the white jersey. They finished the stage fourth and fifth. Who took which position did not matter. What mattered was that Isaac had strengthened his third place in the general classification.

Then came the image of the Tour for me: Pogi and Isaac rolling across the finish line together, making bull horns.

No leader ahead of the helper. No winner with an entourage. Two teammates celebrating a shared achievement.

The same quality was visible in Paris. On the final lap over Montmartre, Pogačar attacked with Mathieu van der Poel. When the sprinters began closing the gap, he did not stop contributing or start playing tactical games. He continued working with Mathieu until Mathieu launched his sprint.

There is a leadership lesson in all of this.

• Great leaders do not need to claim every victory, every camera and every stage for themselves.
• They create space for others to perform. They share the spotlight. And they do not become smaller when somebody beside them succeeds.
• They do not always need to be at the centre for everyone to know who is leading.

Originally posted on LinkedIn.