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Nobody can stop the wheel king
Vingegaard wins the Tour de France for the second year in a row
7/23/2023, 7:33 p.m
He easily repelled the last desperate attack of his Slovenian rival Tadej Pogacar on Saturday, now Jonas Vingegaard proudly rolls into Paris in the yellow jersey: Like last year, the Dane wins the Tour de France. This time the bike king drives even more dominantly.
The old and new tour patron Jonas Vingegaard asked for a glass of champagne on the way, then he pedaled along the Champs-Elysees in a relaxed manner. On the last of a fascinating 3405 kilometers, the Danish dominator and his loyal teammates took it atypically easy. On his final triumphant march to Paris in the evening, the 26-year-old fully savored his second overall victory in the Tour de France.
Jordi Meeus clinched the last stage victory on the magnificent boulevard in the heart of the French capital and secured the second day’s victory for the German team Bora-hansgrohe at this year’s Tour of France. Despite the triumph in the most important sprint of the year, the Belgian, who narrowly beat his compatriot Jasper Philipsen, was completely overshadowed by the king in the famous yellow jersey.
“It was a crazy fight over three weeks, I really enjoyed the rivalry with Tadej,” said Vingegaard before the start of the last part of the day, when his sovereign overall victory over his great rival Pogacar was already a certainty – even if Pogacar, contrary to all conventions, attacked again on the Champs-Elysees. But that belonged more in the entertainment category than insult to majesty.
Champagne 80 kilometers from the finish
Vingegaard’s lead over the Slovenes was 7:29 minutes, who was nevertheless an equal competitor for almost two and a half weeks on the tour. And with his second victory of the day on the last difficult mountain stage on Saturday after Le Markstein in the Vosges, he reached a conciliatory conclusion – he had lost the tour with his collapse in the Alps on Wednesday. “But today I was myself again,” said Pogacar.
As with the Tour 2022, nothing came of a German stage victory – Georg Zimmermann and Phil Bauhaus were close to their second places. In the overall standings, Emanuel Buchmann ended up in 21st place. His captain, Jai Hindley, at least gave the Bora-hansgrohe team the yellow jersey for one day.
Already 80 kilometers before the stage finish in Paris, champagne was served from the window of the support vehicle by Jumbo-Visma to the dominant team of the tour, whose actions reminded ex-champion Andy Schleck of “an army of German tanks”. However, unlike last year, with three riders taking six stage wins and Wout van Aert (resigned on Thursday due to the birth of his second son) taking the green jersey, Jumbo was completely focused on the captain’s success.
Vingegaard dominant like no one before
Rarely has a tour winner been more dominant in modern cycling than Vingegaard – at least when looking at the numbers. In the past 25 years, only two drivers have had a larger lead in Paris: Lance Armstrong was a full 7:37 ahead of second-place finisher in 1999, as was Vincenzo Nibali in 2014. Armstrong, however, was a cheater and the 2014 tour suffered from the abandonment of top stars Froome and Contador.
And: Vingegaard already conquered the jersey on the sixth stage and didn’t give it up after that. The last time Bernard Hinault managed to break through from such an early stage was in 1981. It’s just a shame that this tour, which was a two-week nibble between the two great duelists, didn’t carry its suspense all the way to the end. Almost all of the time difference resulted from Vingegaard’s demonstration at the mountain time trial and Pogacar’s slump the following day. Otherwise it would have been a precision landing.
How great Vingegaard’s respect for his rival’s abilities was, despite the large lead, was shown on Saturday’s difficult mountain stage in the Vosges. On the final climb, Vingegaard kept glancing nervously for Pogacar on his rear wheel, then doggedly sprinted for every second and for second place. “It’s never over until it’s really over,” said the Dane.