Vingegaard Has Collapsed Lung After Crash In Basque Country Race. Tour De France Defense Is In Doubt

BARCELONA, Spain: Two-time defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard remained hospitalized in Spain on Friday, someday after he broke his collarbone and several other ribs in a foul crash with different prime riders throughout a chaotic Tour of the Basque Country.

The Danish rider’s Visma-Lease A Bike staff stated additional exams revealed that Vingegaard additionally sustained a collapsed lung and a pulmonary contusion throughout the crash in Thursday’s fourth stage. The staff stated biking’s main rider was “stable and had a good night” however stays in a hospital within the northern Spanish metropolis of Vitoria.

The accident got here lower than three months earlier than the beginning of the Tour de France on June 29, when Vingegaard was scheduled to once more face off in opposition to his main rival, Tadej Pogačar. The extremely anticipated rematch of former champions is now doubtful.

There was extra carnage on the weeklong Tour of the Basque Country on Friday, when Mikel Landa and Soudal Quick-Step teammate Gil Gelders crashed within the fifth stage. Landa, the runner-up within the race in Spain a yr in the past, was put right into a neck brace and brought away on a stretcher.

“(Landa) was taken to the local hospital where X-rays revealed that he has suffered a fracture to his clavicle. He will now undergo further investigation to determine the best path for his recovery,” Soudal Quick-Step stated later Friday.

Romain Gregoire of Groupama-FDJ gained Friday’s stage in a lowered dash. Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek remained within the total lead heading into the ultimate stage Saturday, which contains a onerous climb that would shake up the overall classification.

Vingegaard was hardly transferring Thursday when he was put into an ambulance carrying an oxygen masks and neck brace after the harrowing crash with lower than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) remaining within the stage. The pileup additionally took out Primoz Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, together with a number of different riders, a lot of whom wanted therapy in hospitals.

Evenepoel broke a collarbone and his proper shoulder blade and was set to bear surgical procedure when he returns to Belgium on Friday, Soudal Quick-Step stated. Evenepoel stated in a put up 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, a former highway race world champion and the reigning time trial champ, is scheduled to make his Tour debut this summer time earlier than he participates in each of these occasions on the Paris Olympics.

Roglic, a three-time Spanish Vuelta winner, emerged with simply scratches, in keeping with his BORA-Hansgrohe staff, however the reigning Olympic time-trial champion nonetheless needed to abandon the race he was main.

The accident occurred Thursday as riders have been making what gave the impression to be a traditional right-hand, downhill flip. One rider’s entrance tire appeared to slide out and ship different cyclists off the highway. There have been some giant rocks and bushes within the space, although it wasn’t clear if any of the riders hit them, together with a concrete drainage ditch on the sting of the curve.

Race director Julián Eraso stated the accident was a shock because the organizers thought of the curve to be “easy” to deal with.

“You never know where an accident can occur,” Eraso informed 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.”

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AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report.

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AP sports activities: https://apnews.com/sports

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)