Following Jonas Vingegaard’s exit from the Tour de France, Visma-Lease a Bike have raised question marks over the corner where the two-time winner crashed on Sunday’s stage 15, describing a “strange situation”.
With his arm in a sling, Vingegaard was taken back to his team bus in Vougy at the foot of the day’s final climb, but he only emerged to be bundled into a team car and driven away, with collarbone surgery the next step on his agenda.
Instead, sports director Marc Reef spoke to the gathered media, explaining the emotions on the bus, Vingegaard’s condition, and the team’s point of view on the crash.
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“He is of course very, very disappointed at this moment and also the pain is really there from his collarbone,” Reef said. “It’s something that needs to settle in, I think, for a few days or maybe even longer
"Yeah, it's just, it's really, really shit.”
Vingegaard crashed on a right-hand bend out of a roundabout with just over 20km to go, slipping out behind three of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates as they led the peloton towards the final climb.
“All of a sudden the roundabout was there,” Reef said.
“What I also heard from the others, there was a motorbike in front, and he panicked a bit in braking, so the rest had to brake in front of the group. And also the riders immediately looked back because when you have to do that in front, then you know that it will be tight, and then Jonas went down together with some others."
Asked directly whether the motorbike was to blame for the incident, Reef said: “I think it is more the parcours at this moment. It was a really strange situation there, with the roundabout.
“The motorbike also went fast, he had to take the second exit on the roundabout, and I think that surprised him that he really had to brake. And also because of that, the riders were braking, and then it was just waiting for the first rider to go down.”
It was pointed out that the breakaway took a different line through that corner, and that the potential danger was flagged among the teams, but Reef denied any knowledge of this: “No, I'm not aware of that.”
Vingegaard had revealed at the start of the day that his sleep had been interrupted by a surprise anti-doping test at 2am, leading to question marks over whether fatigue or a lack of alertness may have contributed to the crash.
“I think it's not something to speculate on that,” Reef stated.
“The boys were ready, he was ready, he was also feeling good during the stage, and the crash itself, it was more that the motorbike had to brake because of the corner that was suddenly there.
“It was also a strange situation over there. They all had to brake also in front of the group, and then Jonas was the first one that went down.”
You can watch the incident in the video embed below
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