Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team will better understand if the Dane can recover in time to ride the 2024 Tour de France within the next two weeks, with his recovery and gradual return to training to follow a walking, indoor riding and then outdoor riding process.
Vingegaard left hospital in the Basque Country on Monday, 12 days after his high-speed crash at the Itzulia Basque Country race. The two-time Tour de France winner suffered a fractured collarbone and several ribs, plus a pulmonary contusion and a pneumothorax, with the lung injuries causing his long stay in hospital.
Vingegaard and the Visma-Lease a Bike team have not revealed where he will spend his convalescence, though he is expected to spend time with his family either in Denmark or in Lugano, Switzerland, where he recently moved in 2023.
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Visma-Lease a Bike have understandably protected Vingegaard’ privacy as he recovers but directeur sportif Frans Maassen talked to Danish television channel TV2 about his injuries, his recovery and chance of riding the Tour de France.
“He had a puncture in his lung, that was his main problem. He also had a broken collarbone, several ribs broken and also broken a finger, but the most delicate problem was the puncture in the lung,” Maassen told TV2, referring to Vingegaard’s pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax.
“I’m not a doctor but we have to see in the next few weeks what is possible, and then we start new plans.
“He’s going to walk first, ride indoors and then on the road. That's the procedure, but I can't say anything about when.
“The most important thing is that he recovers. After that, we’ll make a good plan for him.”
Senior directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman has already said Vingegaard will not attend the Visma-Lease a Bike Tour de France altitude training camp in May and played down suggestions that he may start the Grand Boucle even if he is not at his best.
“I don’t think so,” Maassen agreed.
“For Jonas, it’s important to be at 100 per cent to go into the Tour. It's a really hard race. He won it twice and I don't think he wants to go there to be top-10 or whatever. He has to be in his best shape, and we will have to see if that’s realistic in the next few weeks.
“He has to recover from his very bad crash. We will have to see in the next two weeks what progress he makes and then we will make a new plan.”
“Jonas is a special guy. He may recover quickly, but as I said, I am not a doctor and it is far too early to make a decision.”
