At the finish line

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How much can you achieve, when you are fueled by passion, will, and endurance? 

For many Danes,  these abilities have the last few weeks led us to great accomplishments,  as we have managed to stay in our sofas or recliners for hours on end while watching on TV how the Danish Jonas Vingegaard fought his way to the front of the Tour de France.

How awesome it has been for all of us to be able to lie around, while he scaled mountains during the heat of the day and dueled his rival Tadej Pogacar every meter of the way.


Today, I  rose up from the recliner.

Since the early afternoon, I have been standing on the Parisian Avenue des Champs-Elysées, in front of the Maison de Danemark,  surrounded by thousands of fellow Danes, all celebrating, shouting, and waving their flags.

I arrived several hours ahead of the actual race, hoping for a front-row view  of Vingegaard racing towards the  Arc de Triomphe and into Danish sports history


The first couple of hours waiting have actually been quite fun, walking around a bit and talking to people, but now the crowds are massive, the sun is baking, the temperature is way above 30 degrees - and I'm out of water and almost dehydrated.


Two hours later: Still waiting for what seems like an eternity, while a huge caravan of commercial vehicles passes by.

The roaring from thousands of VERY well-hydrated Danish fans keeps going on and on and on:

'Who's the one to win the Tour de France, Vingegaard, Vingegaard-oh-oh'. 

'Who's the one to win the Tour de France, Vingegaard, Vingegaard-oh-oh'. 


Another couple of hours of waiting, waiting, wait...

Suddenly, without any warning

 - Whoooosh! 

In what seemed like a split second, the peloton raced by!

I raised my mobile to take a photo - but due to the massive heat, it had gone into a coma.

After all these hours. No photo of Vingegaard!


Fortunately, the peloton came back several times, racing up and down the avenue,  and all the Danes got plenty of opportunities to cheer Vingegaard on.

My camera was still comatose, but  I saw with my own eyes this constantly roaring, waving sea of red and white along the avenue 

'Who's the one who won the Tour de France, Vingegaard, Vingegaard-oh-oh' : -)

He did 

- and I was lucky to be there!

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