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Tour de France stage 21 report: Jordi Meeus snatches victory on the Champs-Élysées

Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France overall for the second year in a row.

Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) takes a surprise victory on stage 21 of the 2023 Tour de France. Photo © Cor Vos

Kit Nicholson
by Kit Nicholson 23.07.2023 Photography by
Cor Vos
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The Tour de France wrapped up in traditional fashion on stage 21 with a hotly contested sprint on the Champs-Élysées. A dominant Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the top favourite to take his fifth win of the race, but after a frantic few laps of the iconic Paris finale, it was Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jordi Meeus who emerged victorious from a four-way photo finish.

Behind the sprinters, Jonas Vingegaard took advantage of his enormous buffer to hang back with his teammates to celebrate a second consecutive Tour de France victory.

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Final general classification

  1. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 82:05.42
  2. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 7:29
  3. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) @ 10:56
  4. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ 12:23
  5. Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 13:17
The jersey wearers: Points classification champ Jasper Philipsen, overall winner Jonas Vingegaard, best young rider Tadej Pogačar, and a Great Spotted Ciccone.

Brief analysis

Quote of the day


“Unbelievable. We had a very good start to the Tour, but we got into some struggles obviously with Jai’s crash, but you cannot finish a Tour de France better than with a victory on the Champs-Élysées. I’m very very very happy for Jordi, he’s such a hard worker, he deserved his spot to be here and he’s now one of the legends winning on the Champs-Élysées. Hats off.”

Marco Haller, lead-out man for Jordi Meeus

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A combination of the public vote and the race jury awarded Victor Campenaerts the overall combativity prize for the Tour, and he didn’t let up on stage 21, putting in the first (soft) attack of the day.

Of the many riders finishing their last Tour in 2023, Peter Sagan is maybe the most successful of them.

The boys at Groupama-FDJ, notably David Gaudu, Thibaut Pinot and Marc Madiot, were hungry for Haribo this morning.

All hail Sepp Kuss! But seriously, that is some record.

A week after Romain Bardet crashed out of the Tour Hommes, he and his son paid a visit to the Tour de France Femmes, and onto the podium to congratulate Lotte Kopecky on receipt of the KOM jersey.

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