CARCASSONNE, France: Tour de France overall leader Jonas Vingegaard crashed 58 km from the finish of the 15th stage before making his way back into the peloton on Sunday.
On a bad day for the Jumbo-Visma team, the Dane hit the tarmac with team mate Tiesj Benoot shortly after losing the support of Steven Kruijswijk, who abandoned the race following a crash.
Dutchman Kruijswijk held his right shoulder as he sat on the road after the crash during the 202.5-km ride between Rodez and Carcassonne, before throwing in the towel.
“Steven crashed and could not continue, he crashed hard on his shoulder,” Jumbo-Visma sports director Grischa Niermann told reporters.
“Then we drove back to the peloton and when we arrived Jonas and Tiesj were on the ground. Jonas was quite ok.
“We’re another man down and it’s not good. With Steve we are missing one very important domestique in the mountains but that’s life. We have to do with six riders and we will do with six.”
Primoz Roglic, the 2020 runner-up, was the first Jumbo-Visma rider to leave the race when he did not take the start of the stage after failing to recover from injuries sustained in a crash last week.
Vingegaard, who suffered some bruises on his left side, did not lose any time and still leads defending champion Tadej Pogacar by two minutes and 22 seconds in the overall standings.
“We all waited for him and paced him back,” said Vingegaard’s team mate Christophe Laporte.
“Then he stayed focused near the front. Everything went well in the end. It was a chaotic 5-10 minutes but these are things we cannot control.”
Monday is a rest day on the Tour de France.
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