Jonas Vingegaard forced to abandon Tour de France after stage 15 crash
Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard will not maintain his record of never finishing lower than second overall at the race after he crashed in the finale of stage 15. The Dane suffered a suspected broken collarbone and abandoned the race immediately.
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Jonas Vingegaard has been forced out of the Tour de France after he crashed with a little over 20km to go on stage 15 to Plateau de Solaison.
The Dane injured his right shoulder when he came down in a crash on a right-hand corner as his Visma Lease a Bike team led the yellow jersey group towards the day’s the final climb.
Vingegaard sat on the roadside receiving treatment before he was taken away by ambulance with his arm in a sling.
The abandon brings an end to Vingegaard’s extraordinary sequence of never finishing lower than second overall at the Tour. He lay second on general classification, 4:30 down on Tadej Pogacar, before Sunday’s stage.
Vingegaard was the first rider to fall in the incident, which also saw Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) come down, but the Mexican was quickly back on his bike and in the yellow jersey group, which had slowed briefly in the wake of the crash.
The yellow jersey group resumed its pace shortly afterwards when it became evident that Vingegaard’s Tour was over. His abandon sees Pogacar’s overall lead extend still further and it creates an open contest for the two podium places behind the Slovenian after five successive years of their duopoly.
Vingegaard arrived at this Tour fresh off completing a full set of Grand Tour victories with a crushing Giro d’Italia triumph in May. He began the Tour on a strong note by wearing the first yellow jersey after leading Visma to victory in the opening team time trial in Barcelona.
He was divested of yellow by Pogacar two days later, and the world champion would hammer home his advantage with further wins at Gavarnie-Gèdre, Le Lioran and Le Markstein.
Despite those setbacks, Vingegaard had insisted he was still aiming to win the Tour, and his Visma team was prominent in setting the pace in the yellow jersey group on the approach to Plateau de Solaison on Sunday.
Vingegaard’s preparations for the stage were hindered by a nighttime doping control, with the Dane revealing he had been woken by inspectors from the International Testing Agency at 2am.
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