Jonas Vingegaard said on Saturday pulling on the yellow jersey at the Tour de France gave him closure after a horror crash two years ago almost ended his life.
Vingegaard darted up the final climb on the 19.6km opening team time-trial at the Tour in Barcelona to give his Visma-Lease a Bike team the stage victory and himself the overall lead at the Grand Boucle.
Two years ago he thought he was going to die after a crashing heavily on a rapid descent at the Tour of the Basque Country.
He spent two weeks recovering in hospital from a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and blood in his lung tissue.
"It's been a few hard years for me for obvious reasons," the emotional 29-year-old Dane told reporters.
"I've been at times struggling in the last few years and now I feel like I can close this chapter in the book.
"Of course, it will always be a part of my book, laying there on the ground believing that I'm going to die.
"And then coming from that to this point is also for me a bit emotional.
"To be honest, when you're there on the ground, you don't even think about cycling. I just thought about trying to survive.
"So to be able to now get the yellow jersey again is a dream coming true, for sure," he added, seemingly close to tears.
Vingegaard had not worn the yellow jersey since his second of back-to-back Tour victories in 2023.
He made a remarkable recovery from his April 2024 crash to take part in the Tour just three months later, although he was clearly far from his best.
Although he was second to arch rival Tadej Pogacar in 2024 and 2025 – as he had been on his Tour debut in 2021 – he was well beaten in both of those.
This was the first stage since 2023 in which Vingegaard had actually gained time on the Slovenian world champion and four-time Tour winner.
But for Vingegaard, just wearing the jersey again was what mattered most.
"I'm extremely happy and proud of it," he said.
"It's just something that being back in the yellow jersey is for me the most important here.
"I'm just extremely happy. It's something I dreamed of for the last three years."
'I NEED TO CHILL OUT'
As for Pogacar, 27, he was satisfied with UAE Team Emirates' performance in the time-trial, with his burst up the final climb helping them finish third on the stage.
The reigning champion is third in the overall standings, just 12 seconds behind Vingegaard.
Ahead of Sunday's 169km second stage from Tarragona to Barcelona his main concern was to get some rest.
Sunday's stage finishes with three circuits up the same Montjuic hill that provided the finale to the opening stage, on which Pogacar was fastest up the last climb.
That earned him the climbers' polkadot jersey.
"First I need to decompress from today, chill out a little bit, it's not much time left to chill out until bedtime," he said.
"For tomorrow, it's quite a tricky stage, but it's for puncheurs and it's going to be really hectic in the final.
"Also before the final it's really complicated sometimes and we need to take care tomorrow and we'll see what we can do in the final."