After being caught up in a late crash, Jonas Vingegaard finished stage 5 of the Tour de France on teammate Victor Campenaerts' bike, avoiding total disaster as his Visma-Lease a Bike chased hard to ensure he finished on the same time as Tadej Pogačar.
Visma's lead DS Marc Reef explained the hectic finale at the team bus, noting how what was a moment of mass stress ended up with the result they wanted.
"We heard that Jonas was also in the crash, or somewhere involved. Then he got immediately the bike from Victor [Campenaerts], the boys were with him pulling hard for him, and in the end I think everybody what we see now is on the same time at the finish," said Reef at the team bus to small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews.
"We knew that it was a tight corner, also with the sidewalk on the right side, or a small higher line, we knew that corner was coming. The moment how we approached the final was just good, we were together, but in the hectic crash, I think in the end, Jonas got the bike from Victor, we rode hard to the line, and it finished all on the same time."
The first sprint finish of the Tour is always crazy, but this crash occurred at the worst possible moment, just outside the 5km safe zone that all of the GC riders were hoping to arrive at in one piece. Several Soudal-QuickStep and Caja Rural riders were involved.
In the end, Vingegaard finished the day in 53rd, on the same 14-second gap as Pogačar and all of the protagonists to stage winner Olav Kooij, with the first big mountain stage arriving on Thursday to Gavarnie-Dèdre.
