Jakob Fuglsang was fresh from a third overall at the Tour de Suisse as he headed into the 2022 Tour de France, optimistic he was carrying the form to make a mark on the race as leader of the stage hunting Israel-Premier Tech squad. However after a crash on stage 15 the 37 year old is now looking at either an abandon before the Pyrenees or racing on with a fractured rib.
Fuglsang came down in a crash at 65km to go, which took down a number of riders including Steven Kruijswijk, forcing the Jumbo-Visma rider to abandon and leaving tour leader Jonas Vingegaard down one more key support rider. The Israel-Premier Tech rider was one of the last to remount, but went on to finish the stage in 141st place before assessing the damage.
“After crashing on stage 15 of the [Tour de France], Jakob Fuglsang underwent X-Rays at the finish which revealed a fractured right rib,” said the team in a Twitter post on Sunday.
The medical team, along with Fuglsang, decided on Monday that the best course of action was for the rider to go home in order to begin his recovery as soon as possible.
“Of course, I am disappointed. I’ve tried to race with a fractured rib before and fight through it and make it all the way until the end. But, in this case, I know I have nothing to win by trying to hang on so it’s better to pull the plug, go home and recover," Fuglsang said in a team statement on the rest day.
"I know that it’s too painful to continue so it’s my only option. I hope the team can keep up the good work. There are some hard stages to come but they will keep fighting until the end and hopefully get another stage win.”
Up until the start of stage 15, Israel Premier-Tech had kept their team complete however then stage 5 winner Simon Clarke delivered a positive COVID-19 test and departed.
Fuglsang’s best result so far was on stage 14 to Mende, where he came sixth. It is the Danish riders 11th Tour de France and while he has been on the stage podium a number of times, and finished as high as seventh on GC in 2013, the rider is yet to win a stage at the French Grand Tour.
Fuglsang entered the Tour as the team leader, with Canadian Michael Woods another top prospect but right from the start the squad – which is working to avoid being relegated from the WorldTour – have been clear they’ll be looking to make the most of whatever opportunity presents across the roster.
So far in this year’s race the team has been on the podium three times, with the victory from late 2022 signing Clarke over the cobbles, a satisfying third from Chris Froome at the top of Alpe d’Huez and then the next day Hugo Houle also took third from the break on stage 13.
