Former Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard said he was finally back to his best following last year's horrific crash, after ending 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 hospitalized with a punctured lung and several broken bones.

The accident shook him mentally and physically, but he began to rebuild 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 España in September.

Jonas Vingegaard Reflects On Recovery And Return To Form

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

"You never really know when you have a bad crash like that if you will get back to the same level you had before," he said. "It's only by the end of this year that I can see that I'm able to push in the same way that I was before my crash."

Vingegaard missed last year's Paris Olympics and finished far behind rival Tadej Pogacar in the Tour de France in the months after his crash. He said he hopes he has now fully put the accident behind him as he looks ahead to next season.

"It's taken me quite a long time before coming back to the same level," he said. "Slowly you come back to it and hopefully now I can get back to improving rather than trying to get back to the same level."

Jonas Vingegaard Overcomes Fall To Win Saitama Criterium

Vingegaard kicked for home on the final lap to win the Saitama Criterium ahead of Italy's Jonathan Milan and Australian Kaden Groves.

He had to do it the hard way after crashing three-quarters of the way through the 60-kilometer course, before getting back on his bike and resuming the race.

"Luckily I didn't hurt myself and I just slipped," said Vingegaard, who was helped back onto his bike by Davide Stella of the UAE team. "I just lost the wheel and luckily nothing happened and then I could come back and win."

Vingegaard rode side by side with Slovenia's Primoz Roglic before making his final attack on the last lap of the circuit. He said his fall disrupted his race plan but forced him to adapt on the fly.

"At first you only think about getting back to the bunch," he said. "Then there was an attack that I could follow, and then luckily I could go solo from there."