Jordi Meeus won the final stage of the Tour de France in an exciting sprint to the finish. Jonas Vingegaard drove home his overall victory.
At the end of the tour, Jordi Meeus prevailed against sprint favorite Jasper Philipsen in a wafer-thin sprint with a photo finish and secured the stage victory for himself and his team Bora-Hansgrohe. Team manager Ralph Denk and the team were expectedly euphoric immediately after the announcement of the victory.
Jonas Vingegaard, meanwhile, enjoyed the last kilometers on the way to his second triumph in the Tour de France overall classification. The defending champion started the stage seven and a half minutes ahead of Tadej Pogacar. Traditionally, the overall leader is no longer attacked in the final act in Paris.
Pogacar shows up again
The fact that second-placed Tadej Pogacar attempted to break away on the final laps on the Champs Elysees was not an attack on Vingegaard, but more of seizing the opportunity to show himself in front again.
Usually, top sprinter teams catch breakaways on the final leg to fight a bunch sprint. This was the case again.
Overall victory is decided one lap before the end
Shortly before the end, the probability of rain was so great that the race organizers decided to measure the final times one lap before the end as a precautionary measure. As a result, Vingegaard was the overall winner early on and then took it easy, but the stage win was still won.