bike race
Dane Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France for the second time in a row
Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France for the second time
© Daniel Cole / AFP
Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France for the second time and made history. No Dane had ever achieved such a success before him.
Jonas Vingegaard is the first Dane to have the second time won the Tour de France. The 26-year-old reached the goal of the final stage on Sunday in Paris with the peloton. After around 3400 kilometers and 21 stages, Vingegaard was several minutes ahead of Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia. Last year Vingegaard celebrated his first tour victory. The last stage was won by Belgian Jordi Meeus from the German team Bora-hansgrohe.
“Of course I’m very happy to have won the Tour de France for the second time. It was my big goal this year,” said Vingegaard. He drove out the decisive lead in the individual time trial on Tuesday and one day later on the queen’s stage to Courchevel. Until then, it was a duel with Pogacar for seconds.
Vingegaard: Incredible fight for Tour de France
“This year it was an incredible fight between me and Tadej. It was really hard to break it,” said Vingegaard. His rival saw Vingegaard’s Tour victory above all as his own weakness on the Courchevel stage, when he lost almost six minutes. “I cracked myself. Nobody else. That was me,” said Pogacar about his “worst performance of all”. In addition, the Slovenian was impaired by a fractured scaphoid in the spring and was unable to prepare properly for the tour.
Vingegaard received a call from Danish Crown Prince Frederik on Saturday evening after the penultimate stage. The professional cyclist will be received in Copenhagen on Wednesday. The convertible is to go from Kastrup Airport to the Danish capital’s town hall. There Vingegaard will show himself on the balcony. As in the previous year, tens of thousands are expected on the town hall square.
A day later we continue to Vingegaard’s hometown of Glyngøre on the Danish mainland. 20,000 people received him there last year. Preparations for this year’s festival have been going on for months.