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IN PICTURES: Vingegaard’s triumphant return to Copenhagen after Tour de France win

Cycling-mad Danes have turned out in their thousands on Wednesday, July 27th to give a hero's welcome to 25-year-old Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard.

Published: 27 July 2022 16:46 CEST

IN PICTURES: Vingegaard's triumphant return to Copenhagen after Tour de France win

Fans crowd Rådhuspladsen as Vingegaard and his family wave from a balcony. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Thousands of fans line the streets on a windy Copenhagen afternoon to catch a glimpse of Vingegaard on his way to City Hall. Photo: Mads Klaus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix.

Vingegaard is the second Danish tour winner in history, and the first since the year of his birth. Foto: Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix

Fans crowd Rådhuspladsen as Vingegaard and his family wave from a balcony. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Vingegaard speaks at Copenhagen City Hall, his girlfriend Trine Marie Hansen and their daughter Frida seen left. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Vingegaard, Trine Marie Hansen and their daughter Frida ride the Tivoli train amid celebrations of the Tour de France win. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

When the Tour teams were presented ahead of the race, 15,000 turned out to Tivoli to cheer them on. During the celebration of Vingegaard’s victory, crowds may stretch Tivoli’s 25,000-person capacity. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen

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How to follow the Tour de France on Danish TV (and why you might want to)

For the first time since the Tour de France began in 1903, it will not finish in or near Paris, but instead in Nice, in order to accommodate the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The event will also start earlier than usual, with the grand départ scheduled for Saturday, June 29th. Cyclists will cross the finish line on July 21st.

The sport is hugely popular in Denmark, which itself hosted a grand départ two years ago and again has a leading contender in the peloton in two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard.

This 2024 race will begin in Florence, Italy.

According to the race website, there “will be eight flat stages, as well as four hilly, seven mountain (with four summit finishes at Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet, Plateau de Beille, Isola 2000, Col de la Couillole), two time trials and two rest days.”

This year, participants will climb a total vertical gain of 52,230 meters, crossing a distance of 3,492 kilometres.

How can I watch the race?

If you are in Denmark, you have two options: TV2 and Eurosport.

TV2’s coverage can be viewed using the channel’s streaming platform TV2 Play. The majority of the racing and analysis will be shown on the regular TV2 channel, with some available on the TV2 Sport channel. The broadcast schedule can be found here.

Depending on whether you want access to everything, you can choose between two different TV2 Play subscription packages. The basic package starts at a very reasonable 69 kroner per month. If you want to watch the Sport channel coverage, you’ll need to subscribe to the “Favorit + Sport” package which starts at 219 kroner per month. More information can be found via TV2 Play here.

The alternative option is Eurosport, which you can watch on Max, HBO’s Nordic streaming service. If you’re a fan of HBO shows like the recently-released Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, you might already have a subscription – in which case you can add the sports channels for 40 kroner per month.

The basic Max package, if you don’t already have one, starts at 79 kroner per month.

READ ALSO: How to watch the Euro 2024 tournament on TV in Denmark

Why watch the Tour de France?

Each year between 10 and 12 million spectators watch the race widely considered to be the most famous and most difficult cycle challenge, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.

The Tour de France route changes every year, so viewers not only witness the impressive athleticism of participants, but they also explore France’s different regions. The towns that stage the départs (start of each race day) usually put on a festival often incorporating local traditions, food and drink (for the spectators, not the cyclists).

This year, the Tour de France will go through beautiful landscapes in the Occitanie region, as well as the Alps and across central France.

The race has a fascinating history, and every now and again there are spectacular crashes which will keep you wincing.

There is also a hit Netflix docu-series called ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ that may be a good place to start for the uninitiated.

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