A seemingly inoffensive transition stage on Sunday could hardly have gone worse for Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard as the Jumbo-Visma leader had a crash and lost two key climbing teammates, Primož Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk in a single day.
Vingegaard did not suffer more than road rash when he and Tiesj Benoot both hit the deck in the middle of a town some 60 kilometres from the line, he told reporters afterwards.
Roglič dropped out before the start of stage 15 and Kruijswijk fell heavily and left the race in an ambulance with unspecified injuries. But Vingegaard's crash, even if it has no long-term effects and he could get back into the main bunch in less than 10 minutes, was another setback on a day when the roof came worryingly close to falling in on Jumbo-Visma. Taking only two questions in his main press conference underlined how keen Vingegaard was to put stage 15 behind him.
"As you say, they're two very, very important teammates, two very, very strong riders, so of course, it's not nice," Vingegaard observed. "It was quite a bad day for us, but we'll just keep on fighting all the way to Paris."
As for the actual consequences of his fall, he added, "I'm OK, I have some road rash on my left side. I went down but I was quickly back up again, and I feel OK. Of course, I'm a bit sore, but that's how it is after a crash."
Although Vingegaard did not do the usual daily post-stage interview with French TV, the commentators observed that he was walking normally when he went past them, showing no sign of his injuries. And a few minutes later the Dane was willing to open up a little more when talking to the remainder of the media.
The fall itself, he said, remained unclear. "All I know is Tiesj crashed in front of me and I couldn't do anything. I just hope that Tiesj is OK. He crashed worse than me."
The most important consequence of the day was the loss of Roglic and Kruijswijk, Vingegaard affirmed. And although he now has a rest day to get over his injuries, how big a loss they represent will quickly become apparent when the Tour enters the Pyrenees on Tuesday for the first of three difficult stages.
