After a grueling three weeks and 3,350 kilometers of unrelenting effort, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France on Sunday, ending the reign of two-time reigning champion Tadej Pogacar.

A year after his breakout performance, in which he finished second behind Pogacar in 2021, the 25-year-old former fish market employee Vingegaard won his first Tour de France.

Jasper Philipsen of Belgium took first place in the infamous final stage sprint on the Champs Elysees’ cobblestones.

At the finish line, after claiming his second victory of the Tour, elated Philipsen lifted his bike high, putting his embarrassing blunder of incorrectly celebrating his second-place triumph on stage four behind him.

Together and cheering passionately, Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma colleagues crossed the finish line in a line.

Vingegaard secured his victory on Saturday’s time trial after a grueling battle over peaks and plains in a scorching weather.

He had taken the lead in the Alps and extended it in the Pyrenees.

Pogacar, a former champion who came in second and took home the best under-25s jersey for the third race, successfully defended his reputation by pursuing Vingegaard all the way to the finish line.

Geraint Thomas, the 2018 winner, finished third after running mostly at his own pace and dispelling skeptics who believed the amiable Welshman was past his prime at age 36.

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