Jonas Vingegaard wins Tour de France crown as Jasper Philipsen takes final stage

Jonas Vingegaard celebrated his first Tour de France title after Jasper Philipsen brought the curtain down on the 109th edition with a sprint victory in Paris.

Vingegaard crossed the line arm in arm with his Jumbo-Visma team-mates, with Wout Van Aert – a winner on the Champs-Elysees 12 months ago – choosing to sit out the sprint to be part of the merriment.

Up ahead, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen took his second victory of this Tour as he came around Dylan Groenewegen in the final few hundred metres to win comfortably, with Alexander Kristoff a much closer third.

Vingegaard finished three minutes 34 seconds clear of Tadej Pogacar, with 2018 winner Geraint Thomas completing the podium.

“It’s just incredible,” the 25-year-old Dane said. “Now I’ve finally won the Tour. Now nothing can go wrong anymore and I’m sitting here with my daughter and it’s just incredible.

“It’s the biggest cycling race of the year, the biggest one you can win and now I’ve done it and nobody can take this away from me.

“I’m super happy about my victory now. Of course I want to celebrate, I want to relax, but then I always want more.”

The battle for yellow had effectively been sealed in Saturday’s time trial, with Sunday’s stage for celebrations and for sprinting.

Groenewegen’s Team BikeExchange-Jayco led the peloton through the final bend and on to the Champs-Elysees but the Dutchman was made to go too soon and had no response when Philipsen powered his way past at the end of the 116km closing stage.

“I cannot believe it, it’s a childhood dream coming true,” said Philipsen, who took his first Tour win on stage 15 in Carcassonne. “This will take a while to realise. I’m just super proud of the team. That we could finish a Tour like this is the cherry