PARIS (AP) – Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France for a second straight year as cycling’s most storied race finished on Sunday on the famed Champs-Élysées.
With a huge lead built up over main rival Tadej Pogačar, the 2020 and 2021 winner, Vingegaard knew the victory was effectively his again before the largely ceremonial stage at the end of the 110th edition of the Tour.
The 26-year-old Vingegaard celebrated with his Jumbo-Visma teammates as they lined up together and posed for photos on the way to Paris.
“It’s been a long journey, yet it went by so fast,” Vingegaard said. “Day after day, it was a super hard race with a super nice fight between me and Tadej. I’ve enjoyed every day. I hope to come back next year and see if I can take a third win.”
It had been a three-week slog over 3,405 kilometres with eight mountain stages across five mountain ranges. Vingegaard seized control of the race over two stages in the Alps.
Little had separated the two rivals until Vingegaard finished a time trial one minute, 38 seconds ahead of Pogačar last Tuesday, then followed up the next day by finishing the toughest mountain stage of the race almost six minutes ahead of his exhausted rival.
