Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, in second place in Tour de France, withdraws after fall

Jonas Vingegaard, the 29-year-old Dane, who was sitting second overall in the 2026 Tour de France, abandoned the race on Sunday after a heavy crash about 20 kilometres from the finish of the 15th stage at the Plateau de Solaison.

Vingegaard went down in a roundabout, taking down several of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates and Mexican rider Isaac del Toro, who was able to continue.

The winner of the Tour in 2022 and 2023 climbed into the ambulance with his right arm in a sling, writhing in pain.

Yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar managed to avoid the crash. 

Vingegaard was visibly in pain following the crash, which caused another four riders to also fall.

He was then helped into a medical vehicle with his arm in a sling. Hours later, his team announced that Vingegaard will undergo surgery on a fractured collarbone following his crash.

“Jonas sustained a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions. Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days,” his Visma-Lease a Bike team said in a brief statement.

Quitting the race

It was the first time that Vingegaard had been unable to finish a Grand Tour.

In his five previous participations at the Tour, he won twice and finished second in the other three.

Vingegaard was bidding to become just the ninth man to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year, two years after his chief rival Pogacar achieved the same feat.

His rivals in the battle for the yellow jersey slowed their pace waiting to see if he would rejoin their group before their teams informed them that he had quit the race and they could push on.

That incident briefly impeded their chase of the seven breakaway leaders but they reached the final 11km-long climb to the finish around two-and-a-half minutes behind Swiss rider Mauro Schmid, who had stolen a march on his break companions.

Sunday’s stage was 183.9km from Champagnole in the Jura to Plateau de Solaison in the Alps.

Race leader and reigning champion Pogacar’s team-mate Isaac Del Toro, who was seventh overall, was one of the other fallers, although he was able to set off again soon afterwards to rejoin the peloton.

Vingegaard’s American team-mate Sepp Kuss was another to tumble and he took a lot longer to get going again.

When he did, he was a long way behind the group of leaders.

Vingegaard’s crash came just hours after he and Pogacar were amongst a number of riders to have been woken up at their hotels in the night by anti-doping controllers.

Vingegaard was woken up at 2:00 am, while Pogacar was disturbed three hours later.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)