Jonas Vingegaard loses lead of Paris-Nice after mid-race crash

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) tumbled out of the lead in Paris-Nice on Thursday, losing 26 seconds on the short but steep finishing climb in La Côte-Saint-André in the finale of stage 5.

Visma-Lease a Bike announced the Danish rider had "sustained a contusion of the hand" and that the team's medical staff "will decide tomorrow if he is fit enough to continue the race".

The two-time Tour de France winner suffered a mid-race crash out of sight of the television cameras, but photos of the aftermath of the incident show Vingegaard with a small cut to his lip. He appeared calm while taking a new bike and was quickly back in the peloton.

However, the cracks began to show in the final kilometre when Vingegaard suffered behind the pace-setting of teammate and defending Paris-Nice champion Matteo Jorgenson.

Jorgenson led a select group into the final 200 metres but lost out in the stage win in the sprint to Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana).

However, Jorgenson moved back into the maillot jaune one day after losing it to an attack from Vingegaard at La Loge des Gardes on stage 4. He leads Vingegaard by 22 seconds with Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in third at 36 seconds.

After the finish, Vingegaard could be seen holding his wrist and seeming to be in pain.

According to Sporza.be, Jorgenson explained, "I was coming back from a nature break
and I saw that Jonas had crashed. And then he came up to me in the race and told me that his hand he thought was possibly broken. 

"It was really painful. He had a hard time braking and holding the bars. He told me that in the stressful moments he was probably not going to be there and told me to go for it myself and that he would do his best.

"I'm glad we kept the jersey under these circumstances but it's definitely not the way I imagined it would go."

Teammate Victor Campenaerts added to the story, saying Vingegaard had complained of dizziness.

"I didn't get the impression that he was very lucid. He got through it a little bit, but he couldn't hold his brake anymore," Campenaerts said.