When an athlete wins a championship two years in a row, but then slips to second the next two years, it’s fair to assume that he may be starting a downswing — that he is a cut below the new champion and that he will struggle to beat him in the years ahead.

But Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia turned the tables on his rival and the defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, this year in the Tour de France, completing a smashing victory on Sunday to take his third title.

Pogacar’s championship was confirmed in the final time trial from Monaco to Nice on Sunday. Setting off last among the Tour’s 141 surviving riders, crouched over his time trial bike — with its solid rear wheel for aerodynamics — Pogacar in the race leader’s yellow jersey rode with the confidence of a sure winner. He capped his stellar three-week run with another stage win, his sixth, finishing 1:03 ahead of Vingegaard to take the Tour by 6:17 overall.

“After two hard years in the Tour de France, always some mistakes,” Pogacar said. “This year — everything to perfection. I am super happy to win here.”

The location (Nice, not Paris) and the format (time trial, not flat stage) were unusual for a final stage, but Sunday turned out to be the same as almost every Tour finale: a coronation more than an actual contest.

Pogacar had led by 5 minutes 14 seconds going into the day, a lead that would have required an epic meltdown or total disaster of some kind to be overhauled.