JAPAN:

Former Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard said he was finally back to his best following last year's horrific crash, after finishing his season on Sunday with victory at Japan's Saitama Criterium.

The Dane was a two-time defending Tour de France champion when a high-speed fall in the Tour of the Basque Country in April last year left him hospitalised with a punctured lung and several broken bones.

The accident shook him mentally and physically but he began to pick up the pieces this year.

The 28-year-old finished as runner-up at the Tour de France before claiming a third career Grand Tour win at the Vuelta a Espana in September.

Vingegaard finished his season with another victory in Saitama, and said his return to the top had taken "a bit longer than I thought it would".

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