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sports Monday 25 July 2022
Jonas Vingegaard, king of the mountains, wins Tour de France

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN a stage featuring three decisive blow in the Pyr-
AP Sports Writer monster Alpine climbs, enees, posting a second
King of the mountains. Vingegaard kept it until the stage win at the Hautacam
Champion on the Champs- end. ski resort. There the Dane
Elysees. With the help of team- responded to a series of
Jonas Vingegaard blos- mates including the ver- attacks from Pogacar and
somed from a talented satile Wout Van Aert, ultimately dropped the Slo-
rookie to a dominant lead- Vingegaard responded venian in the last big moun-
er in his own right over three to the relentless attacks tain stage of this year's race
weeks of epic racing to win launched by Pogacar day to increase his overall lead
his first Tour de France title in, day out. His supremacy to more than three minutes.
on Sunday. in the mountains was such Pogacar cracked about
The former fish factory that, in addition to his over- four kilometers (2 1/2 miles)
worker from Denmark de- all win, Vingegaard also from the finish in the final
throned defending cham- claimed the jersey for king ascent, with his hopes of
pion Tadej Pogacar with of the mountains — not Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader's yel- winning a third consecu-
memorable performances bad for a rider who comes low jersey and who also has the best climber's dotted jersey, tive title all but over. He
in the mountains in cycling's from a country whose high- Belgium's Wout van Aert of Belgium, wearing the best sprtinters fought until the very end
biggest race. The 25-year- est point is barely 170 me- green jersey, and Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the best but Vingegaard was again
old Vingegaard, who was ters above sea level. young rider's white jersey, ride during the twenty-first stage of the strongest in Saturday's
runner-up to Pogacar in his Vingegaard and Poga- the Tour de France cycling race over 116 kilometers (72 miles) individual time trial to ef-
with start in Paris la Defense Arena and finish on the Champs
first Tour last year, excelled car were clearly in a class Elysees in Paris, France, Sunday, July 24, 2022. fectively secure the title.
in the scorching heat that of their own this year as Associated Press "The battle between me
enveloped France this their closest rival, 2018 Tour and Jonas for the yellow
month and came out on champion Geraint Thomas, spectator in the leaders' third place. jersey has been very spe-
top of a thrilling duel with was reduced to a mere fight. Thomas finished in Vingegaard delivered his cial," Pogacar said. q
Pogacar, the big favorite
at the start of the race.
Vingegaard competed last
year as a replacement for
Tom Dumoulin in the Jum-
bo-Visma squad. It was a
revelation for Vingegaard
as he realized that he
could fight for the overall ti-
tle after dropping Pogacar
in the famed Mont Ventoux
climb, but his Slovenian rival
was at the top of his game
and largely untouchable.
A year later, Vingegaard
stood on top of the podium
after building his triumph
with two phenomenal rides
in the Alps and the Pyre-
nees.
Three weeks ago in Copen-
hagen, the Jumbo-Visma
team started the race with
two leaders — Vingegaard
and three-time Spanish
Vuelta winner Primoz Ro-
glic. But Roglic's challenge
took a blow when he suf-
fered a dislocated shoul-
der and lost more than two
minutes to Pogacar on the
cobbled fifth stage of the
race, leaving Vingegaard
in a sole leader's role.
Vingegaard more than ex-
ceeded expectations from
that moment.
He made his intentions
clear in the first big moun-
tain stage up the Col du
Granon to seize the race
leader's yellow jersey from
Pogacar, who fell more
than two minutes behind
that day. Having claimed
the famed tunic during