Jonas Vingegaard won his second consecutive Tour de France in Paris on Sunday after a 110th edition marked first by his fierce duel with Tadej Pogacar and then crushed by his omnipotence.
Like last year, the 26-year-old Dane won ahead of his Slovenian rival by a comfortable margin of 7 minutes and 29 seconds, the widest margin since 2014. Britain’s Adam Yates completed the podium.
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The leader of the Jumbo Visma team, who made the difference in the Alps earlier this week, was able to enjoy his triumph during the traditional parade of the 21st and final stage.
After toasting with these teammates at the head of a peloton in slow motion, given his enormous lead in the standings, he was able to witness a final offensive on the Champs-Élysées by…Pogacar without much trepidation.
Under a gray and low sky, the Slovenian, an incorrigible attacker, lay in the lead on the cobblestones for a dozen kilometers before finally returning to the ranks.
The sprinter teams could then set off to lead their fastest man to a prestigious victory on the most beautiful road in the world.
And it was the Belgian Jordi Meeus who celebrated the biggest success of his career by surprising his compatriot Jasper Philipsen in the green jersey, who has been ultra-dominant since the beginning of the Grande Boucle, in the photo finish.
Vingegaard crossed the finish line a few yards behind after dominating the 2023 Tour with an authority that contrasts with his slim frame and timid character.
fire, that “inseparable»
At 26, the former fish market worker has asserted himself, and his win last year gave him confidence. Even if he remains a man and basically a discreet runner, escaping the light and society.
But on the tarmac, the Dane made sure everyone agreed on both the course profile and the speed at which the peloton swallowed him up in an extremely tough Tour de France.
The first two weeks were as exciting as they were deceptive. From the first stage in Bilbao, the two favorites engaged in a duel that had long been so close we once thought it would be decided in the octagon of the Champs-Élysées.
The two men struck one after the other. Vingegaard won the first heat at Marie-Blanque. Pogacar the second in Cauterets-Cambasque, followed by some memorable draws, in the Puy de Dôme, in the Grand Colombier or in Morzine, between two champions then called “the lovebirds”.
And then no. Exhausted after a shortened preparation due to his wrist fracture at the end of April, Pogacar retired in two stages. At the Combloux time trial on Tuesday. Then the next day on the queen stage to Courchevel, where the Slovenian experienced the worst failure of his life, summed up in these few words: “I’m gone, I’m dead” (“I let go, I died”).
The intensity of the duel then gave way to the period of suspicion when Vingegaard had to answer questions about doping every day, which resurfaced without any tangible element but inevitable in a sport long plagued by business.
“I don’t take anything that I wouldn’t give my two-year-old daughter,” assured the Dane, his team’s boss Richard Plugge, even adding that his runner was reluctant to take “paracetamol”.
Vingegaard on the Vuelta
To explain his champion’s dominance, Plugge both pointed to the alleged shortcomings of the competition, in this case the Groupama FDJ team riders, who drank “big beers” on rest days, something French manager Marc Madiot vehemently denied.
But also perfecting your own methods in terms of nutrition, training, equipment, etc.
“I’m not much stronger than last year, but I’ve continued to make progress and didn’t have any health problems in spring unlike in 2022,” emphasized Vingegaard.
His triumph confirms the victory of a strategy focused solely on the Tour, with long routes at altitude and the Critérium du Dauphiné as the only springboard, while Pogacar fought at the forefront of the Italian and Belgian classics.
“I love to run in any terrain. It corresponds to what I am,” explained the Slovenian, who is thinking about “new challenges” for the next year.
But Vingegaard also seems to want new experiences. In the morning he announced his participation in the Vuelta at the end of August to attempt a double with the Tour de France/Tour of Spain, not achieved since Christopher Froome in 2017.