Piganzoli points to motorbike trajectory after crash ends Vingegaard’s Tour

Vingegaard came down on a right hand corner with just over 20 kilometres remaining on the road to Plateau de Solaison. The two time Tour winner suffered an injury to his right shoulder and was taken away in an ambulance, bringing an abrupt end to his race.

Speaking after the finish to Eurosport, Piganzoli said the peloton had been travelling at high speed when the incident occurred.

“The motorbike was just in front of the bunch and maybe did not take the best trajectory,” Piganzoli said. “We hit something and I saw that Jonas, who was just behind me, had crashed.”

Piganzoli did not directly blame the motorbike for the crash and said the team would need to review footage before reaching any firm conclusions.

“I do not know exactly what happened to Jonas,” he said. “Maybe tonight we will see some videos and images, and then we will know more.”

Vingegaard’s sports director, Marc Reef, went over to the Dane after the crash and spoke with him before he was taken to hospital for further examination.

“We came around the corner and saw him lying there. It is terrible,” Reef told Feltet. “He is on his way for an X ray, and we cannot say much more at the moment.”

According to Reef, it was immediately apparent that Vingegaard would not be able to continue.

“He was in pain, and it was clear that he could not continue,” Reef said. “He did not say much, but he said that he was in pain.”

The crash occurred while Vingegaard’s team was driving the pace at the front of the yellow jersey group ahead of the final climb. Their plan had been to place riders in the early breakaway before increasing the pressure later in the stage and attempting to set up Vingegaard for the victory.

“Everything was going really well,” Piganzoli said. “We had riders in the breakaway and then we tried to go full gas to keep the gap as small as possible.”

Vingegaard had begun the day second overall, 4 minutes and 30 seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogacar. His withdrawal ended his remarkable record of finishing first or second in every Tour de France he had completed.

For Piganzoli and the rest of the team, the news that Vingegaard could not continue arrived while they were still racing towards the finish.

“It was a very bad moment for us, especially when you are still in the race,” Piganzoli said. “I had been working on the earlier climb and suddenly I did not know what I was supposed to do. I went to the finish, and now we have the rest day to make a new plan for the final week.”

Matteo Jorgenson was also deeply disappointed after the finish.

“It is devastating. We are on stage 15 and we do not have a plan B. We were all in for Jonas and we believed in him. Today was going really well and I thought he was having a very good day. Cycling sucks sometimes,” Jorgenson told Feltet.