Truce saves Tadej Pogacar after late crash at Tour de France
The world champion crashed outside the 3km to go safety zone in the finale of stage 11 of the Tour de France in Toulouse, but he averted a time loss after Jonas Vingegaard et al slowed their pace.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had a late scare on stage 11 of the Tour de France when he crashed with 4km remaining. The world champion looked set to lose ground after he struggled to reset his chain after the crash, but the yellow jersey group elected to wait for the Slovenian.
The GC race had ignited on the final climb of the day with an attack from Jonas Vingegaard near the summit and then another from his Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Matteo Jorgenson over the other side, with Pogačar responding to each move.
The speed was high in the yellow jersey group on the run-in, and Pogačar came down after a touch of wheels. The Slovenian did not appear to be injured in the fall, but he looked set to lose upwards of 15 seconds before the small yellow jersey group that included Ben Healy, Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel opted to knock off the pace and wait for him.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti confirmed that Pogačar had not suffered lasting injury in the crash.
“It was a crash with the chaos of the race, and it was a worry, but fortunately it’s not a big injury – just a little, the arm and the side of the legs, but fortunately not so big,” Gianetti told reporters at the finish in Toulouse. “The bigger thing was the worry in the first moment."
“A crash makes a lot of worry because you never know, it can be an easy crash or a big one. Fortunately, even though it was quite high speed, Tadej feels ok and that’s the big news.”
Pogačar had been to the fore in responding to Vingegaard’s attack on the Côte de Pech David and to Jorgenson’s attack over the other side, and the speed remained high in the reduced yellow jersey group on the run-in to Toulouse.
However, the pace was knocked off once news of Pogačar’s crash filtered through, and the Slovenian came home alongside his GC rivals, 3:28 down on stage winner Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility).
In the overall standings, Pogačar remains second, 29 seconds behind Healy, a minute ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and 1:17 ahead of Vingegaard.
The race enters the Pyrenees on stage 12 with a summit finish at Hautacam.
