Serial falls for the Jumbo team: Dane Jonas Vingegaard had a hot day in every sense of the word on Sunday during the 15th stage of the Tour de France concluded with the victorious sprint in Carcassonne by Belgian Jasper Philipsen.
At the start of the last week of racing, the wearer of the yellow jersey lost two teammates who could have helped him in the mountains in the Pyrenees.
Primoz Roglic, bruised and sore since his fall on the cobbles during the first week, left the Tour before the start of Rodez. The Slovenian, cursed in the Tour since his second place looking like a defeat in 2020, had struggled the day before in a third category climb.
Steven Kruijswjik, he gave up because of a fall that occurred 64 kilometers from the finish. The right shoulder affected, the Dutchman got into the ambulance just before Vingegaard and his Belgian teammate Tiesj Benoot found themselves on the ground 6 kilometers further.
The Dane, yellow jersey darkened at the level of the left shoulder, quickly resumed the race in a scorching temperature approaching 40 degrees. He recovered his place in the front row of the peloton but the alert shook the Jumbo fortress, which now finds itself on an equal footing (six riders) with the UAE of the defending champion, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
Asked after the finish about the consequences of his fall, Vingegaard briefly replied: “I have a few sores on my left side. I went to the ground but I got up immediately. I have a little pain but it’s always like that after a fall.”
– Philipsen devance van Aert –
“He told me it was fine,” added Pogacar, his runner-up in the standings at 2 min 22 sec. “I think he will be ready for the battle ahead.”
At the end of the stage, Vingegaard was able to count on Christophe Laporte, a very valuable auxiliary. Next to the green jersey, the Belgian Wout van Aert, who started at the front at the start of the stage with two other riders (Honoré, Politt) before getting up around the 40th kilometer at the request of his team.
Did the Belgian superman pay for this effort? In the final sprint, van Aert lost a wheel to Philipsen, winner for the first time in the Tour at the age of 24 after a series of places of honor last year (second to three times).
The Alpecin team sprinter brought a nice consolation to his group deprived for several days of his leader Mathieu van der Poel. Neither the Dane Mads Pedersen (3rd), whose team worked a lot in the last part of the stage, nor the Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (6th), could worry him in a very hot final.
Frenchman Benjamin Thomas, who started at the front 48 kilometers from the finish with his compatriot Alexis Gougeard, resisted for a long time. The quadruple world champion on the track, in a pure chaser style, defended his meager savings second by second (9 sec per 4 km). He was only overwhelmed 500 meters from the line, without being able to sign the long-awaited first French stage success.
After the finish, all the runners went to take a Covid-19 detection test. Because the threat of the coronavirus remains present: the Australian Simon Clarke (Israel PT) and the Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education), both winners of a stage since the start, were positive in an internal test carried out by their teams respective and left the race.
