Philipsen enjoys Tour grand finale on Paris’ streets
JASPER Philipsen won the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris as Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line safely to confirm his first overall title.
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, Alexander Kristoff a much closer third.
Behind, Vingegaard crossed the line arm-in-arm with his Jumbo-Visma team-mates to seal his victory, with Wout Van Aert, a winner on the ChampsElysees last year, choosing to sit out the sprint to join the celebrations.
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 yesterday’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 on the cake.
“I think it went ideal for me. I was in a great position and I think Dylan was forced to launch early and I could stay in his wheel and do my final sprint when I wanted to.
“I’m super happy and proud to win on the Champs-Elysees is the dream of any sprinter.”
A six-man breakaway had tried its luck late on but there was no way the sprint teams, starved of opportunities since the Grand Depart in Copenhagen, were going to pass up the now-familiar bunch finish on the boulevard.
While Vingegaard and Pogacar traded blows throughout the Alps and Pyrenees in the fight for yellow, 36-year-old Thomas rode a controlled race which has brought him a third career podium finish in this race.
The Welshamn said: “I’m still making the most of days like this because they don’t come around too often.”