Paris, Jul 23 (EFE).- Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took top honors in the Tour de France for the second consecutive year, hoisting the trophy for the yellow jersey at the end of Sunday’s final stage in Paris, won in a sprint by Belgian rider Jordi Meeus (Bora Hansgrohe).
The 26-year-old Dane finished the 21-stage ride of 3,450 km (2,144 mi) seven minutes and 29 seconds ahead of 2020 and 2021 champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) of Slovenia, who was also second last year.
Third place went to Pogacar’s teammate Adam Yates of Britain, whose twin brother, Simon (Jayco) was fourth. Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) came fifth.
Italian rider Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) walked away with the polka-dot jersey as king of the mountains, while Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – who won four stages of this year’s Tour – claimed the green jersey as best sprinter.
For the fourth year in a row, Pogacar, 24, won the white jersey for best young rider.
Jumbo-Visma repeated as best team.
Though Vingegaard took the yellow jersey on Stage 6, his lead over Pogacar was down to just 10 seconds at the start of Stage 16, a time trial. The Slovene posted the second-best time after the yellow jersey, but ended the day 1:48 behind the Dane.
And there was worse to come on Stage 17, which included the highest climb of this year’s Tour. Pogacar cracked on the ascent of the Col de la Loze and would end the day trailing Vingegaard by 7:35.
EFE soc/dr
