Vingegaard to undergo surgery following Tour de France abandon

Vingegaard crashed with a little over 20km remaining, and he was taken by ambulance to the finish, where he was assessed at the Tour’s mobile X-ray truck. The Dane returned to the Visma team bus after the scans, and the team confirmed shortly afterwards that he would undergo surgery on his fractured right collarbone.

“Following a crash in stage 15 of the Tour de France, Jonas sustained a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions,” read the Visma statement. “Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days.”

Vingegaard lay second overall ahead of the crash, and he had remained defiant about his prospects of final victory in Paris despite his 4:30 deficit on the yellow jersey of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Visma were prominent in pressing on the pace in the yellow jersey group ahead of the ascent of Plateau de Solaison, but their Tour challenge ended when Vingegaard crashed on a right-hand bend.

Speaking to reporters after the finish, sports director Marc Reef said that it had yet been decided whether Vingegaard would undergo surgery in France or at home in Denmark.

“That’s something we are finding out at the moment. When we know something more about that, then we communicate that,” Reef told reporters including Daniel Benson. “He fractured his collarbone and in one of the upcoming days because of the fracture, he will need to have surgery.”

Vingegaard had undergone a 2am anti-doping control ahead of stage 15, but Reef shrugged off Pogacar’s theory that the disruption to his sleep had been a factor in the crash.

“I think it’s not something to speculate about,” Reef said. “The boys were ready, he was ready, he was also feeling good during the stage. The crash itself, it was more that the motorbike in front had to brake because of the corner that was suddenly there, and it was a strange situation. They all had to brake also in front of the group and Jonas was the first one that went down.”

Vingegaard had never placed lower than second overall in his five previous Tour appearances, winning the race in 2022 and 2023. He warmed up for this year’s race with a crushing victory at the Giro d’Italia to complete a full set of Grand Tour wins.

“He was of course really disappointed to abandon the race,” Reef said. “He was feeling really good.”