WATCH: 10 emotional moments from the Tour de France in 10 emojis | Tour

A lot of waterlanders flowed into this Tour, often thanks to the Lagelanders. There were the tears of Jonas Vingegaard at the team presentation in “his” Denmark and Wout van Aert also got angry after his victory in the time trial, but we found the most memorable one of Yves Lampaert.

Lampaert was clearly beaten by God after his surprising victory in the opening time trial. His catchy interview afterwards – with the legendary words: “I’m just a farmer’s son from Belgium” – left no one untouched.

For the first time, the Tour de France started in Denmark, but as far as we’re concerned, not for the last time. The Danish enthusiasm was heartwarming. “Apparently everyone in Denmark is standing by the sidelines here”, José De Cauwer remarked almost in disbelief.

Wout van Aert and Peter Sagan have already fought a few tough times in the sprint in their careers. In the stage to Sønderborg they clashed again. Sagan thought that Van Aert deviated too much from his line and showed this clearly after the finish with a reproachful finger and a few curses.

Jasper Philipsen was apparently so tired of his second places in the Tour (this year’s and last year’s) that he just started celebrating them as victories in Calais. The truth, of course, was that Philipsen didn’t know that Van Aert was already ribbedebie. Afterwards he could happily laugh at his blunder and in Carcassonne he corrected it in a grand way with his very first victory.

It wasn’t Mathieu van der Poel’s Tour, but in the ride to the Col du Granon he helped in one of the key moments of the past 3 weeks. From kilometer 0 Van der Poel jumped away together with Wout van Aert. For miles, the two arch-rivals/friends put pressure on the rest of the pack. For Van der Poel it would be a final salute, because later that stage he got off the course.

It was not the Tour of Van der Poel, but certainly not of Thibaut Pinot either. The French teddy bear had his sights set on a stage win or maybe the polka dot jersey, but it didn’t work out twice. A serious blow to Pinot, even literally, when he failed to see the outstretched arm of a Trek attendant and unintentionally shared the blow.

The fact that Fabio Jakobsen made it to Paris in his very first Tour is half a miracle. The Dutchman had to double up in the Pyrenees to meet the time limit every time. The final climb to Peyragudes almost became his Waterloo: with a handful of seconds left on the clock, he “sprinted” to get in on time. From the top, his teammates shouted him up.

From day 2 all the way to Paris, Wout van Aert rode in the green jersey. So he didn’t really have to look at a shirt more or less. The British cycling fan who received one in the descent of Granon will cherish the gem for a lifetime.

Van Aert had first stopped himself to help some cyclists with bad luck, but was then offered a bicycle pump himself to remedy his idler. In return, Van Aert handed the man his green sweater.

It was a Tour de France full of tension and struggle, but luckily there was also the occasional laugh. Like when Luke Rowe taught people back home how to make phone calls from a drinking bottle.

What seemed to be a boring Tour in advance due to the predicted supremacy of Tadej Pogacar eventually turned into a blistering duel, in which the Slovenian had to give up his yellow jersey to Jonas Vingegaard. Not without a fight, however, because Pogacar also showed his unbridled hunger for racing after his hunger knock.

In the end it was a futile battle for Pogacar, but he won a lot of cycling hearts by resigning himself to it in an extremely sporty way, both during and after the race. That also made the 2022 Tour an unforgettable edition.