Jonas Vingegaard wins second successive Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard won his second successive Tour de France on Sunday after Jordi Meeus claimed the final stage honours on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Denmark's Vingegaard of the Jumbo-Visma team crossed the finish line after the 21-day race, 7min 29sec ahead of Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, the champion in 2020 and 2021.

Pogacar's UAE teammate Adam Yates of Great Britain rounded out the top three podium.

Vingegaard's winning margin was the largest since 2014 when Italian Vincenzo Nibali took the fabled champion's yellow jersey by 7min 39sec.

The champion strolled around the winner's paddock with his family smiling broadly before mounting the winner's podium singing along to the Danish national anthem.

But the runner up Pogacar too was shining and chatting unlike the mountain stage where he crumbled to lose the Tour.

"Considering everything it's been a great Tour, I have to be happy with that," Pogacar said after picking up his best young rider jersey for the fourth time.

"We have two guys on the podium, and I won two stages and the white jersey. I love cycling," he said before greeting his family at the foot of the podium

The final stage was won by outsider Meeus of the Bora team, with Jasper Philipsen denied a fifth stage win on this Tour right at the line in a photo finish.

"What a wonderful finish, it's been such a high level Tour," said the surprise stage winner.

The world's greatest bike race provided tense drama with spectacular backdrops as Vingegaard and Pogacar remained separated by seconds until the Dane edged ahead with a sensational individual time trial last Tuesday.

The following day, on a 28km climb to the ski resort of Courchevel, Pogacar cracked, shouting "I'm gone, I'm dead" before Vingegaard killed off the race with