Week two of the Tour de France ended devastatingly for Jonas Vingegaard after he crashed on Sunday, spoiling his Tour goals and blowing the race wide open for the podium.
Buoyed by his success in the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, Vingegaard came to France looking to bring home an ambitious double Grand Tour title.
But it was not meant to be, after the Dane hit the deck at a high-speed corner in mountainous stage 15, forcing him to abandon the race for good.
Vingegaard ends Giro-Tour double dreams
Vingegaard had been the closest contender against defending champion Tadej Pogačar, as he has always been since they started battling each other in the mountain slopes of France.
Although Pogačar put a gap of four minutes and a half to Vingegaard before Sunday’s stage, it was clear the Team Visma Lease-a-Bike leader was not conceding the fight yet.
Stage 15 offered the peloton its first Hors catégorie finish of this year’s edition — known as the most gruelling mountain climb in a race.
The breakaway fought for gaps during the first part of the stage, with 24 riders forming at 87km before the finish line, which included assertive Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5, Egan Bernal of Netcompany Ineos, Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal Quick-Step, Yannis Voisard of Tudor and Adam Yates of UAE Emirates XRG.
High-speed chase
The group eventually thinned out. Behind them the peloton was making their move to chase the breakaway, led by Vingegaard’s Visma.
However, the high-speed chase came to an abrupt halt at a corner with 24km to go due to a crash that took down two-time Tour champion Vingegaard and his teammate Sepp Kuss, as well UAE’s Del Toro and Brandon McNulty.
While everyone else recovered, Vingegaard was seen sitting on the side of the road in pain, before he was taken to an ambulance.
Witnessing the crash, Pogačar visibly slowed down and waited before it was confirmed Vingegaard would no longer continue the race.
Visma later revealed the Dane sustained a broken collarbone and would need surgery.
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Remco Evenepoel makes comeback
The peloton eventually recovered, and this time Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set the pace to chase the breakaway.
That was until Pogačar emerged again, accelerating the bunch eight kilometres from the summit.
By then, only his teammate Del Toro and Evenepoel held onto his wheel until they eclipsed what remained of the breakaway.
In a surprising turn of events, Pogačar chose to set up Del Toro for the sprint instead of fighting for the win, but as Del Toro accelerated, Evenepoel took his chance and launched a powerful sprint to take his comeback victory.
Pogačar rode on Evenepoel’s wheel to second place. Del Toro finished third.
“It’s amazing. I’m literally trembling with emotions. It’s been a hell of a day, a pretty hard stage,” Evenepoel told reporters after the race.
“For me it’s a big step forward that I can follow this pace, because it was a crazy hard pace. I get so many criticisms, ‘he can’t survive this type of climb’, so it feels amazing for myself and everybody around me… It means a lot.”
‘Sad’ Pogačar pays tribute to greatest rival
On the other hand, Pogačar was a little subdued compared to the previous stages.
He also criticised unexpected doping controls in the early hours before stage 15, during which Vingegaard was subjected to at 2am in the morning.
Pogačar also had a visit at 5am.
“I was sleeping very well. It’s good that they test, but when it’s affecting performance and your sleep, I don’t think it’s so good.”
He then talked about his relationship with his rival Vingegaard, with whom he has shaped the Tour in the last five years.
“It’s really sad to see that Jonas [Vingegaard] is out. Since 2021, we’ve always been battling out for the victory,” he said.
“Maybe in the beginning we didn’t have the best relationship, but in the last two years we became good rivals, with respect, and I also think we are kind of friends.”
It is reminiscent of Vingegaard’s own interview a year ago, when he told TNT Sports: “If I was racing without him [Pogačar], it wouldn’t be the same, and hopefully he feels the same the other way around.”
Pogačar also posted a photo of them on his Instagram wishing him a speedy recovery, complete with a caption saying: “The Tour won’t be the same without you.”
More teams register stage wins
Meanwhile away from the GC battle, Uno-X Mobility registered their first win at this year’s Tour de France when Søren Wærenskjold raced against the super sprinters to take stage 11.
Tim Merlier of Soudal also took a hat-trick of victories after winning again in stage 12, although his dominating performance came to a halt on Sunday when he was forced to abandon the race.
Stage 13 belonged to Team Jayco AlUla, following Mauro Schmid’s impressive attack in a day for the breakaway.
With Vingegaard now out of the picture, the battle for the podium in Paris reignites among the GC contenders with Evenepoel now second and Del Toro in third overall as the Tour de France finally enters its last week on Tuesday.
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