Tour de France: Vingegaard crashes and withdraws; Evenepoel wins ahead of Pogacar
The top story for once concerns Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar’s main rival. The Dane, just over twenty kilometres from the finish of the 15th stage (with an uphill finish at Plateau De Solaison), was forced to withdraw following a nasty crash that has likely left him with a fractured right collarbone.
A minor accident on a bend that wasn’t particularly dangerous, whilst his team, Visma, were leading the race and setting the pace. Vingegaard lost control of his front wheel and crashed into the kerb marking the edge of the road. The Dane was immediately taken to the medical car with his right arm slung around his neck.
Jonas’s Tour was a truly unlucky one. Although he was almost never able to match the Slovenian’s exploits, the 29-year-old Dane – already a two-time Tour winner – was nevertheless second in the general classification, some four and a half minutes behind the yellow jersey.
On his darkest day, it was the Belgian Remco Evenepoel who capitalised on the situation: not only did he win his first mountain stage, beating Pogacar and Isaac del Toro in the sprint, but he also managed to move up to second place in the general classification, exactly five minutes behind the Slovenian, who for once was not the star of the show. In fact, let’s put it this way: for a day, the yellow jersey – perhaps also affected by Vingegaard’s withdrawal – took a short breather ahead of the rest day.
We’re not saying that the Slovenian gave Evenepoel a free run – far from it – but he didn’t exactly go out of his way to secure his fifth victory either. ‘The Martian’, perhaps tired of being told that he never gives his rivals any breathing space, eased off slightly, content to see the young Isaac Del Toro – his team-mate at UAE Emirates – move up to third place in the general classification, now around six minutes behind the Slovenian.
