2022 Tour de France wraps up with new winner, smallest finishing field in years

After finishing second in 2021, Jonas Vingegaard made good on his promise this year, winning the 2022 Tour de France. The 25-year-old, who five years ago was working as a fish packer in a factory in the morning before training in the afternoonclaimed his maiden Tour de France title after Sunday’s final stage, completing a triumph he effectively sealed in the mountains after a vintage duel with 2021 winner Tadej Pogacar.

Vingegaard finished Sunday’s ride to the Champs Elysees safely in the bunch as Belgian Jasper Philipsen won the last stage in a sprint ahead of Dutch Dylan Groenewegen and Norway’s Alexander Kristoff, who were second and third respectively.

“It’s just incredible. 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,” said Vingegaard. “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.

“First of all I’m super happy about my victory now. Of course I want to celebrate, I want to relax, but then I always want more.”

Vingegaard laid the foundations of his victory in the 10th stage, when he and his team-mate Primoz Roglic attacked Pogacar relentlessly and made him crack in the climb up to the Col du Granon.

Pogacar hit back time and time again but Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma team contained the feisty Slovenian, with the new champion sealing the victory when he claimed another win at Hautacam in the final mountain stage.

Overall, Vingegaard, who rocketed into the limelight last year, finished ahead of Pogacar and also won the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification.

Geraint Thomas, the 2018 champion, ended up a distant third overall in a race that took place under the cloud of COVID-19, with 17 riders pulling out after contracting the virus.

135 Finish in Paris

Just 135 riders rolled onto the Champs Elysees today, the fewest to finish the race since 2000.

The race started below its typical roster of 176 riders with five riders dropping in the final days before the race due to COVID related reasons.

COVID was certainly the cause for most of the abandons, but heat and injuries played a part as well.

Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) left after the Stage 9 rest day with a torn glute muscle. Jumbo-Visma co-leader Primož Roglič left on stage 15 to concentrate on recovering from injuries sustained in earlier crashes, and Rafał Majka left the race after suffering a knee injury on stage 16.

All in all, COVID was responsible for 44% of the abandons in 2022.

A full list of abandons at the 2022 Tour de France

Stage / Rider / Reason
5 – Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – Crash (broken pelvis/iliac bone)
5 – Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) – Crash
6 – Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) – Crash (fractured vertebrae)
6 – Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo) – Crash
8 – Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates) – COVID-19
8 – Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) –  COVID-19
8 – Gianni Moscon (Astana Qazaqstan) – Long COVID
8 – Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM) – Crash (fractured collarbone)
9 – Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) – COVID-19
9 – Kasper Asgreen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) – Injury (knee)
9 – Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education-EasyPost) – Illness
Rest day – Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) – Injury (torn glute)
Rest day – Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies) – Injury (skin infection)
10 – Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco) – COVID-19
10 – George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) – COVID-19
11 – Oliver Naesen (AG2R Citroën) – Illness
11 – Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – Lack of form
13 – Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) – COVID-19
13 – Victor Lafay (Cofidis) – Illness
15 – Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) – Recovery from injuries
15 – Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) – COVID-19
15 – Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) – COVID-19
15 – Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) – Crash (fractured collarbone)
15 – Michael Mørkøv (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) – Time cut
16 – Mickaël Cherel (AG2R Citroën) – COVID-19
16 – Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) – COVID-19
16 – Max Walscheid (Cofidis) – COVID-19
16 – Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) – Illness
16 – Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) – Injury (fractured rib)
16 – Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) – Time cut
17 – Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) – COVID-19
17 – Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates) – Injury (knee)
17 – Fabio Felline (Astana Qazaqstan) – Illness
18 – Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) – COVID-19
18 – Imanol Erviti (Movistar) – COVID-19
18 – Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) – COVID-19
19 – Enric Mas (Movistar) – COVID-19
20 – Nathan Van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) – Family circumstances
21 – Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) – COVID-19
21 – Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech) – Ilness
21 – Gorka Izagirre (Movistar)- Racing elsewhere