Jonas Vingegaard says life could not be any better after securing his first Tour de France title in Paris on Sunday.
The Jumbo-Visma rider crossed the line on stage 21 in unison with his team-mates at the end of a largely processional finale in the French capital.
Vingegaard had a lead of more than three-and-a-half minutes on back-to-back champion Tadej Pogacar heading into the 116-kilometre stretch, and his triumph was never in doubt.
He is the second Dane to win Le Tour, after Bjarne Riis in 1996, while it is the first time in 30 years the winner of the race has been a native of the country where the race started.
Saluting his victory on the Champs-Elysees, an emotional Vingegaard said: "It's just incredible. I have finally won the Tour. Nothing can go wrong anymore.
"I'm sat with my daughter. It is just incredible. It is the biggest cycling race of the year, the biggest one you can win, and now I have done it. Nobody can take this away from me."
Vingegaard finished in the chasing bunch on the final stage, which was won by Jasper Philipsen, to retain the yellow jersey that he had been in possession of since stage 11.
Pogacar's hopes of a third title in a row were effectively ended on Thursday when Vingegaard increased his GC lead after the final mountain stage in the Pyrenees.
"I always had the feeling that at least I could fight for the win," Vingegaard added. "But I think in the end, when I really started believing was after the stage.
"I always believed in the victory, but I was thinking something really has to go wrong after Hautacam."
Asked how he plans to celebrate, Vingegaard said: "Tuesday, I go to Holland, Wednesday in Copenhagen, Thursday in the town I live in, and Friday, I'll be on the couch for a week!
"Of course, I'm super happy about my victory now. Of course, now I want to celebrate, relax, but then I also want more, yes."
Vingegaard was also crowned King of the Mountains, while team-mate Wout van Aert came out on top in the Points Classification.
Jumbo-Visma are the first team to win the yellow, polka dot and green jerseys at the same edition of the race since Faema managed the feat in 1969, thanks to Eddy Merckx.
Tom Pidcock happy to ‘play down’ yellow jersey ambitions at Tour de France
Tom Pidcock is reluctant to call it a target but the opportunity to take the yellow jersey on the opening weekend of this year’s Tour de France has not escaped his notice.
The 23-year-old will race his second Tour this July, and said his goal is to do better than he did on debut last summer.
That might seem a lofty ambition given how Pidcock stormed to a stunning solo stage victory on the Alpe d’Huez, the descending skills with which he escaped his breakaway companions still talked of with awe.
But it would get even more attention if the Ineos Grenadiers rider enjoyed a spell in yellow, and a lumpy opening stage in the Basque Country offers a rider of Pidcock’s talents a chance.
“I think it is (an opportunity), yeah,” he told the PA news agency. “It’s a possibility and something that I am aware is a possibility. I think the first stage of the Tour is one that can be treated like a one-day classic, it’s going to be a super-hard day.”
When told that sounds non-committal, Pidcock quickly adds: “I’m just playing it down.”
Pidcock, who proved his one-day credentials at Strade Bianche in March, is far from alone in eyeing that opening stage, but he has other goals in July too.
He wants to show greater consistency in the general classification, and also to win a stage from the main bunch rather than a break.
“Last year I was going to the Tour two months after being ill in the spring and then getting Covid, it was not the perfect lead in,” he said. “I think this year I’m stronger and I can do better, basically.”
Pidcock is certainly riding high on the back of his recent spell on the mountain bike.
The Olympic champion took two victories from the World Cup round in Novo Mesto, first storming from last to first to win a short track race he only learned he was riding with a couple of hours’ notice, then recovering from a lap-five crash to win the cross-country race.
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It came after he finished second in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and third in the Amstel Gold Race at the end of April.
The run of form is affirmation for the work Pidcock did in the winter, when he chose not to defend his cyclo-cross world title but instead focus on conditioning.
Although a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico in late March punched a hole in some of his ambitions, the core fitness remains.
“Definitely I feel I’m a bit more robust and certainly at a higher level and I have been for longer and I think that’s partly from the extra time spent building a base preparing,” he said. “I think that’s only going to carry into the rest of the season.”
Throughout his young career to date, the Yorkshireman has juggled the demands of road, mountain bike and cross, but always knew there would come a time when something had to give. This season has shown how that might look.
“I think if I want to achieve the goals I do on the road, certainly there are going to have to be sacrifices in other disciplines,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute and help with those ambitions.”
There are likely to be sacrifices too at August’s World Championships in Scotland, where the first combined multi-discipline championships is creating dilemmas for several athletes given the schedule clashes.
Pidcock plans to race his mountain bike, so is strongly leading towards skipping the road race which comes first and could come at a cost.
“I don’t want to do both and go home with nothing,” he said. “I’d want to ride the road race because it’s a home race and it will be a super nice experience and I think the worlds is a very special particular race where you never know what will happen.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to ride, I want to ride, but would it be the best thing? I don’t know.”
:: Tom Pidcock is a Red Bull athlete. Watch him appear in ‘Race Tapes‘, the new Red Bull series that delves into the lives of the world’s leading riders across all disciplines.
Juventus 0-1 Milan: Giroud decides top-four battle in Rossoneri's favour
Milan secured a top-four Serie A finish with a 1-0 win at Juventus as Olivier Giroud's header dealt a knockout blow to the Bianconeri's own hopes of Champions League qualification.
Still reeling from their 10-point deduction and Monday's miserable 4-1 defeat at Empoli, Juve required a win at Allianz Stadium to take the top-four battle to the season's final matchday.
However, the Bianconeri's lack of attacking thrust was on full display once again, with Giroud scoring the only goal of the game with an outstanding header as half-time approached on Sunday.
The Rossoneri were comfortable from there as they ensured Juve's chaotic season will end on another sour note, piling more pressure on embattled head coach Massimiliano Allegri.
Sandro Tonali headed Junior Messias' delivery over as Milan started brightly, but Juve soon improved, with Angel Di Maria failing to hook Moise Kean's cut-back home on the stretch.
More Bianconeri chances came and went as Federico Chiesa hammered over and Kean worked Mike Maignan from distance, but Juve found themselves behind five minutes before half-time.
Davide Calabria's hanging cross from the right was met with a textbook header from Giroud, who planted the ball beyond Wojciech Szczesny's despairing dive.
Adrien Rabiot forced a comfortable save from Maignan as Juve toiled after the restart, failing to make any attacking headway without injured striker Dusan Vlahovic.
Szczesny stuck out a leg to deny Alexis Saelemaekers and Rafael Leao fired over on the break, while Danilo had a close-range effort blocked in a goalmouth scramble as Juve's bid for Champions League football ended with a whimper.
What does it mean? Milan profit from Juve woes
When Juventus' 10-point deduction was confirmed earlier this week, Milan were the chief beneficiary after being propelled into the top four.
Stefano Pioli's men were determined not to let that advantage slip here, the Rossoneri weathering the Juve storm midway through the first half and deserving the three points after Giroud's goal.
Milan thus completed just their third Serie A double over Juventus in the last 50 years, also doing so in the 1990-91 and 2009-10 campaigns.
Giroud the man of the moment
Giroud has so often been the man for the big occasion for both club and country, and he gave Szczesny no chance with a firm header just as Juventus looked to be in the ascendency.
The 36-year-old striker has now scored 12 times in Serie A this season, his best return in one of Europe's top five leagues since he hit as many Premier League goals for Arsenal in the 2016-17 campaign.
Fatal blow for Allegri?
Allegri has faced stern criticism for most of the campaign, and the pressure may just become intolerable now they will finish outside of Italy's top four for the first time since 2010-11 (when they finished seventh).
Having also fallen short in the Europa League semi-finals, the Bianconeri have suffered three successive defeats for the first time since doing so in 2011 under Luigi Delneri.
What's next?
Milan wrap up their Serie A season against Verona next Sunday, while Juventus will be playing for a Europa League place when they visit Udinese on the same day.
Barcelona 3-0 Mallorca: Fabulous Fati fires up Camp Nou farewell
Ansu Fati's fabulous first-half double fired LaLiga champions Barcelona to victory in their Camp Nou farewell with a 3-0 win over Real Mallorca.
The Blaugrana signed off from their famous stadium in style, with Gavi also netting in a comfortable win over their 10-men visitors on Sunday.
In what was their final home game at their iconic ground before a temporary move to facilitate a lengthy renovation, Xavi's side ensured they bade it a fitting goodbye.
After losses against Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid, it also marked an impressive return to form.
Barca needed less than a minute to carve open their visitors, with Fati tucking away a Gavi cutback following a neat Robert Lewandowski ball into the box.
Matters soon worsened for Mallorca, when Amath Ndiaye saw his yellow card upgraded to a red by VAR for a shocking foul on Alejandro Balde.
Fati doubled his tally after that with a close-range rocket off Lewandowski's deft one-touch set-up, and Barca never looked like losing control from there on out.
Mallorca dug their heels in, but even then remained under siege, with Jules Kounde hitting the bar with a header shortly after the restart.
Lewandowski crashed a free-kick against the woodwork too, but Barca finally found their third when Gavi lashed a low finish beyond Dominik Greif.
There were standing ovations for Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets on their final home appearances, with the Camp Nou crowd rising to salute the club legends.
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