BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Two-time defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard remained hospitalized in Spain a day after he broke his collarbone and several ribs in a bad crash with other top riders during the Tour of Basque Country.
The Danish rider’s Visma-Lease A Bike team said Friday that further tests revealed the Vingegaard also suffered a collapsed lung and a pulmonary contusion. The team said that cycling’s leading star was “stable and had a good night” but remains in a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Vitoria.
The accident comes less than three months before the start of the Tour on June 29 when Vingegaard is scheduled to to again face off against top rival Tadej Pogačar. That highly anticipated rematch is now in doubt.
Vingegaard was hardly moving as he was put in an ambulance wearing an oxygen mask and neck brace after the crash occurred on Thursday with less than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) left in the race’s fourth stage.
The pileup also took out cycling stars Primoz Roglič and Remco Evenepoel.
Evenepoel broke a collarbone and his right shoulder blade and was set to undergo surgery when he returns to Belgium on Friday, his Soudal Quick-Step team said.
The two-time world champion said in a post on social media that “obviously my plans for the short future will change but I hope and think that my long-term goals will not change.”
The 24-year-old Evenepoel is scheduled to make his Tour debut this summer before he participates in both the time trial and road race events at the Summer Olympics.
The accident happened as riders were making what looked to be a conventional right-hand turn going downhill when one rider’s front tire appeared to slip out and send other cyclists off the road. There were some large rocks and trees in the area, though it wasn’t clear if any of the riders hit them. There was also a concrete drainage ditch on the edge of the curve.
Race director Julián Eraso said that the accident was a surprise since the race organizers considered the curve to be “easy” to handle.
“You never know where an accident can occur,” Eraso told Spanish radio Cadena SER. “This year the roads were good, wide, easy roads. That curve to the right was easy … (and) there was an indication a few meters before to let riders prepare for it.”
Roglic, a three-time Spanish Vuelta winner, emerged with just scratches, according to his BORA-hansgrohe team, but he did have to abandon the race he was leading.
Vingegaard was trying to defend the title he won last year at the six-day Tour of Basque Country. The race ends Saturday.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Source: post
