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There’s a shimmer of hope at Visma-Lease a Bike after an emotional stage at Paris-Nice on Thursday that saw two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard crash heavily and lose the race leader’s jersey.
Team officials confirmed some good news late Thursday evening that the Dane did not break any bones or suffer a serious injury in a mid-race crash that left him with a bloodied lip and physically drained at the finish line.
“Jonas Vingegaard has sustained a contusion of the hand after a crash in Paris-Nice. Our medical staff will decide tomorrow if he is fit enough to continue the race,” a team statement read.
Despite crashing with nearly 100km to go, Vingegaard finished the stage in 16th at 26 seconds back after losing the wheel halfway up the final 18-percent grades. He slipped out of the lead into second place at 22 seconds back, with teammate Matteo Jorgenson finishing third to reclaim the top spot.
The Idahoan said he did not witness the crash, but recounted some details about what happened next.
“I was coming back from a nature break and I saw him stopped on the side of the road with some blood on his face,”Jorgenson told reporters. “Later he came to me and told me that his hand was really painful and that it might be broken, and that he was having a hard time braking and holding the bars.”
There were alarm bells ringing inside the Visma-Lease a Bike organization. A broken bone could have set back Vingegaard for months and put his Tour de France chances into danger.
Post-stage images captured Vingegaard grimacing in pain as he tried to remove his gloves and journalists reported that he broke down into tears, suggesting that the injury could be serious.
#ParisNice ☀️ / Terribles images de Jonas Vingegaard (TVL) souffrant.
Il a également des vertiges, il n’y a pas eu de protocole de commotions cérébrales ? pic.twitter.com/PzHkyeYhDH
— Renaud Breban (@RenaudB31) March 13, 2025
Jorgenson helped save the day to climb back into the race leader’s yellow jersey with third on the stage behind winner Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious) in another brutal stage in the “Race to the Sun.”
Defending Paris-Nice champion Jorgenson, who handed yellow to Vingegaard in Wednesday’s controversial weather-marred stage, moved back into the top spot on GC.
Martínez — son of Olympic mountain bike gold medalist Miguel Martínez — pounced in the closing meters to win his first WorldTour race.
Jorgenson: ‘He told me his hand hurt’
Jorgenson said Visma-Lease a Bike put a few riders around Vingegaard to get him through the stage and Jorgenson had the green light to race for the GC.
“They tried to keep Victor [Campenaerts] with him and then the other guys around me as much as possible and we managed it as well as we could,” Jorgenson said. “I am proud of him.”
When asked about Vingegaard starting the next day, Jorgenson said he didn’t know.
“I am happy we kept the yellow jersey in these circumstances, but it’s not how we’d like,” Jorgenson said “I just hope that we can keep one-two on GC, that’s what we came here for. I hope he’s OK. His health for me is more important than a bike race.”
Aangeslagen Jonas Vingegaard verbijt de pijn na de finish: “Hij moet ongelofelijk hebben afgezien”, zegt Victor Campenaerts over zijn gehavende kopman https://t.co/gF1DdsvTzd pic.twitter.com/szWgBqdGu1
— Sporza (@sporza_koers) March 13, 2025
Campenaerts also said he did not see what happened, but noticed that his captain was suffering.
“Halfway through the stage, they got caught in the peloton and Jonas fell on his face,” Campenaerts told Sporza. “He had hurt his hand a lot and could no longer use his left brake. We then chose to stay out of the stress and to move up on the slopes. I did not have the impression that Jonas was very lucid. He got through it a bit, but he could no longer hold his brake.”
Crash midway through the stage
Earlier in the stage, radio reported that the two-time Tour de France winner went down in a spill, but there were no firm details of what happened or if Vingegaard might have suffered a more serious injury.
“Jonas Vingegaard has crashed on the Côte de Trèves. The overall leader suffered a blow to his lips but has returned to the peloton after a visit to the medical car,” a statement read.
The incident happened before live TV coverage commenced, and images from a Getty photographer showed the Dane with a cut to his upper lip.
Vingegaard swapped bikes and was attended to by the race doctor before rejoining the peloton.
The incident came a day after a controversial finale in cold and brutal weather that was stopped twice before restarting. Vingegaard heavily criticized the race organization, and said Wednesday’s stage should have been neutralized.
The crash is the latest to involve a Tour de France favorite this week. On Saturday, Tadej Pogačar suffered a horrific high-speed crash on a descent at Strade Bianche, but was able to recover and win the race.
Last year, Vingegaard crashed heavily in last year’s Itzulia Basque Country in April, and rebounded to finish second to Pogačar at the 2024 Tour.
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