Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France for a second year in row after as the race reached its usual conclusion on the streets of Paris.
The Danish rider crossed the finish line after the 21-day race seven minutes and 29 seconds ahead of UAE Team Emirates Tadej Pogacar, the champion in 2020 and 2021. Pogacar's teammate Adam Yates of Britain finished third.
Vingegaard's winning margin was the largest since 2014 when Italian Vincenzo Nibali took the fabled champion's yellow jersey by 7 min 39 sec.
The final stage saw a surprise winner in Jordi Meeus of the Bora team, with Jasper Philipsen denied a fifth stage win on this Tour right at the line in a photo finish.
It had been a three-week slog over 3,405 kilometres with eight mountain stages across five mountain ranges. Vingegaard seized control of the race over two stages in the Alps.
Little had separated the two rivals until Vingegaard finished a time-trial one minute, 38 seconds ahead of Pogacar on Tuesday, then followed up the next day by finishing the toughest mountain stage of the race almost six minutes ahead of his exhausted rival.
Afterwards, Pogacar described it as “one of the worst days of my life on the bike” and he managed to respond by winning the penultimate stage. But Vingegaard still had an insurmountable lead going into the finale – a mostly ceremonial stage which is contested at the end by the sprinters.
“It's a feeling of being proud and happy – we're winning it for the second time now. It's really amazing,” Vingegaard, 26, said.
“Today with all the Danish people here was really amazing. I have to say thanks not only to my team and family but to the whole of Denmark. They support me and I'm really grateful for this.
“It's been a long journey but it also went by so fast. We race every day and one day takes the other. It's been a super hard race and a super good fight between me and Tadej. I enjoyed it all the way.”
For Pogacar, it was time to reflect on a brutal end to his Tour hopes. The Slovenian, who suffered a wrist fracture in April, came into the Tour unsure of his form.
After two weeks of going toe-to-toe with his main rival, he was crushed in the time-trial before cracking in brutal fashion in Wednesday's final Alpine stage on the lung-busting Col de la Loze.
Vingegaard said his Jumbo-Visma team had a plan to make Pogacar crack, but the 24-year-old saw it differently.
“The only moment they tried to crack me was on Marie Blanque [in the Pyrenees in the opening block of racing]. He was so much better and the next day they tried to crack me completely but I won the stage [in Cauterets Cambasque],” Pogacar, who won the best young riders white jersey for a fourth year, told a news conference.
“After that I just cracked myself alone. Nobody cracked me it was all on me, nobody did anything to me. It was me and my bad feeling. I cracked myself.”
To take it to the next level, Pogacar will need to win the Giro and the Vuelta, having already won three of the five Monument classics.
“The Giro is my favourite race but it's so hard to do Giro and the Tour the same year and the Tour is the biggest race in the world,” he said.
Pogacar also wants to beat Vingegaard in France before possibly moving on to “new challenges”.
“I have a huge respect for him. I think we will have a good future together – I said it like we're a couple,” he added with a laugh. “In the future we'll still battle it out.”
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EQureos%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EUAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELaunch%20year%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E33%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESoftware%20and%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%243%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
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6026 – Dh 200
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
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Background: Chemical Weapons
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
MATCH INFO
Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)
Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
INFO
What: DP World Tour Championship
When: November 21-24
Where: Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae.
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
