Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard on Sunday won the Tour de France, ending the reign of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar after a grueling three weeks and 3,350km of relentless struggle.
The 25-year-old former fish-market worker claimed his first Tour de France title, a year after his breakout performance when he came second to Pogacar.
“This victory is huge for me, it’s incredible,” Vingegaard said as he stood on top of the podium on a sun-kissed Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Photo: AFP
“There are so many people I want to thank, but I don’t know where to start,” he added, reserving particular praise for the organizers, who started the race in his native Denmark.
Vingegaard also hailed teammate Wout van Aert as “phenomenal” and “the best rider in the world,” as he was flanked by second-placed Pogacar and 2018 champion Geraint Thomas, who was third.
“We had a plan and we followed it to the letter, all my teammates outdid themselves,” the champion said.
Packed ranks of Danes in front of the podium began to chant his name as he thanked “the two girls in my life,” a reference to his partner and daughter.
“Without them, I couldn’t have done this,” he said.
Runner-up Pogacar won three stages and also took the white jersey for best under-25 rider for a third straight year.
He was thanked by Vingegaard for this “formidable battle.”
“The white jersey wasn’t really what I was after, but I’m happy with how I raced and am proud to be second,” Pogacar said. “We all dream when we are children of one day being on the Tour de France, of becoming a professional cyclist. The simple fact of participating in the Tour is incredible, especially when you come from a country like Slovenia. So to finish second is still exceptional.”
Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen won the dash for the line on the cobbled Champs-Elysees to take the iconic final stage victory, his second of this Tour, turning the page on his embarrassment at mistakenly celebrating on stage 4, when he had in fact finished second.
“This is the nicest win for any sprinter, it buries the end of the Tour, this one counts,” Philipsen said.
Jumbo-Visma produced a brilliant collective effort with six stage wins, the green sprint jersey and the red combativity jersey for Van Aert, and the polka dot mountains jersey for Vingegaard, as well as the overall title and yellow jersey.
After a relentless struggle over peaks and plains in a crushing heat wave, Vingegaard assured his win in Saturday’s time trial, having taken the lead in the Alps and extended it in the Pyrenees.
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 champion, was third after the veteran raced largely at his own pace, silencing doubters who thought that at 36, the affable Welshman was past his best.
The 21st stage was a largely ceremonial run as Vingegaard and others sipped champagne while rolling past the sights of Paris, including the Jardin du Luxembourg, through Saint Michel and past the Louvre before a sprint over eight laps of the Champs-Elysees.
The Jumbo-Visma team had celebrated on Saturday at their stop-over in Limoges, but the triumph came after a long, collective effort that nearly fell flat at the last minute.
Vingegaard survived the “heart attack” of a near fall on Saturday’s individual time trial to virtually wrap up the Tour.
The two main protagonists had fought each other from start to finish, with Vingegaard dethroning Slovenian Pogacar with a pair of soaring performances in the high mountains.
Pogacar made all the early running with his lone wolf attacking mentality, gradually clawing his way into top spot on stage 6 with an air of invincibility, but the stars aligned against Pogacar when he lost teammates to COVID-19 and injury. He is also a man known to dislike intense heat and temperatures hit 40°C during the final week of the race.
Vingegaard took the yellow jersey from Pogacar on stage 11 and while the UAE Team Emirates man refused stubbornly to give up, he lost further ground on stage 18.
Their epic struggle was highlighted by a moment of sportsmanship when Pogacar fell at high speed and Vingegaard waited for him to catch up, the pair clasping hands briefly in a memorable image from one of the best modern editions of the Tour.
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