Vingegaard injured in horrific crash

Barcelona – Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (right) suffered lung damage during a horrific mass crash in the Tour of the Basque Country race, his team said yesterday.

The injuries pose a question mark over Vingegaard’s hopes of recording a third successive Tour de France triumph this summer, with the race beginning on 29 June in Florence, Italy.

The Danish rider, 27, was taken to hospital after the crash on Thursday in the fourth stage of the race and initially diagnosed with a broken collarbone and several broken ribs.

However, his team Visma-Lease a Bike issued an update yesterday morning saying the injuries were far more serious than that.

“Further examination in the hospital revealed that he also suffered a pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax,” they said.

“He is stable and had a good night. He remains in hospital.”

The horror crash occurred with around 35 kilometres to go in the run from Etxarri Aranatz to Legutio.

Other stars were involved in the crash including Remco Evenepoel, who suffered a broken collarbone, and Primoz Roglic, who abandoned the race but did not sustain any fractures.

Vingegaard, who won the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Tour de France, was put into a neck brace and given breathing aid, spending several minutes prone in a safety position before being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher.

Last week Visma rider Wout van Aert suffered similar injuries in another bad crash at the Around Flanders one-day race.

Roglic lead the overall standings from Evenepoel by seven seconds on Thursday but Mattias Skjelmose is the new general classification leader, four seconds ahead of Juan Ayuso.