Sharjah 24 – AFP: Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France on Sunday, ending the reign of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar who was second.
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 champion, was third.
Belgium's Jasper Philipsen won the dash for the line on the cobbled Champs Elysees to take the iconic final stage victory.
The ecstatic Philipsen lifted his bike aloft at the finish line after taking his second win of this Tour, turning the page on his embarrassment of mistakenly celebrating on stage four, when he had in fact finished second.
Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma teammates all crossed the line together in a line and cheering wildly.
After a relentless struggle over peaks and plains in a crushing heatwave, Vingegaard assured his win on Saturday's time-trial having taken the lead in the Alps and extended it in the Pyrenees.
His Dutch team Jumbo produced a brilliant collective effort with six stage wins, the green sprint jersey for van Aert and the polka dot mountains jersey for Vingegaard.
Defeated champion Pogacar won the best under-25s jersey for the third time and leaves this Tour with his reputation intact after attacking Vingegaard to the bitter end.
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