'That's cycling' - Vingegaard refuses to blame motorbike for fateful Tour crash

Jonas Vingegaard has struck an upbeat note after the crash that ended his Tour de France challenge and forced him to abandon on stage 15.

The Dane sustained a fractured right collarbone in the crash, which took place a little over 20km from the finish at Plateau de Solaison. His Visma | Lease a Bike team stated that he would undergo surgery in the coming days.

“I’m doing surprisingly well,” Vingegaard told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Sunday evening. “It’s obviously very disappointing for us to be forced out like this, and for the Tour to end this way. But that’s cycling. Fortunately, it’s only a broken collarbone.”

Vingegaard’s pain was evident when he climbed into the ambulance that brought him to the Tour’s mobile X-ray truck at the finish line. “I can feel it, but I’ve had some painkillers, so it’s okay,” he said.

Yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar speculated that Vingegaard’s 2am visit from anti-doping testers had contributed to his crash, while Visma teammate Davide Piganzoli wondered if the trajectory of the motorbike outrider was to blame. 

Vingegaard, however, was reluctant to attribute any blame for the incident that led to his first-ever Tour abandon. He had never finished lower than second overall at the Tour, winning the race in 2022 and 2023. At the time of the crash, Vingegaard was lying second overall, 4:30 behind Pogačar.

“What happened was that we were going for the stage win, and we perhaps went into this roundabout a bit too fast. And then my front wheel just skidded out. I didn’t have time to do anything, and that’s just how cycling races are sometimes. It’s just a massive shame for us, to be completely honest,” Vingegaard said.

“Maybe the motorbike made a mistake, but we can’t rely on the motorbikes. We have to use our own judgement. People make mistakes, and there’s nothing we can do about that now.”