Vingegaard after withdrawing from the Tour: "There's no need to be down, it went surprisingly well."

Jonas Vingegaard broke his silence after his dramatic withdrawal from the 2026 Tour de France, speaking to Danish television station TV2 with a composure that surprised everyone. "It's going surprisingly well," said the two-time winner of the Tour de France, who was second in the general classification before his crash. A measured, almost stoic reaction from a champion accustomed to suffering and getting back up.

The Dane from Visma-Lease a Bike was competing on stage 15 when, 21 km from the finish, while negotiating a roundabout on the road leading to the final climb of the day, his front wheel gave way on a right-hand bend. The result: a broken collarbone and the race over. "Maybe we entered that roundabout a little too fast, and then the front wheel slipped off. I couldn't do anything," the rider explained with the clarity of someone who knows that certain things happen in cycling.

After the crash, Vingegaard was transported by race ambulance to the medical truck near the team bus in Vougy, in the valley below the mountain finish. He then spent over half an hour on the bus before boarding a team car that took him to his hotel, initially avoiding journalists. Only later did he grant an interview to Danish TV.

"It's obviously a huge shame. We're disappointed, and I hope the guys can now focus on next week and maybe win a stage or two," added Vingegaard, who immediately thought of his family after retiring: "I spoke to my family a bit; that was the most important thing for me. We've worked out a plan for what's going to happen next. There's no point in getting down, it would only make things worse. "

Regarding the controversy, sports director Marc Reef raised concerns about the safety of the course, pointing out that the bike leading the pack was braking sharply in a situation he himself described as "strange." Vingegaard, however, preferred not to fuel the controversy: "Maybe the bike made a mistake, but we can't blindly trust bikes. We have to use our own judgment. People make mistakes, and we can't change what happened."

Another thorny issue: the doping test he underwent at 2 a.m. the night before the stage, which had already disturbed the sleep of both Vingegaard and leader Tadej Pogačar. The Slovenian himself had speculated that lack of rest might have affected the Dane's concentration at the time of the crash. Vingegaard responded cautiously: "It's clear he didn't do well, one might say. But whether that was the reason, I don't dare speculate. I don't want to blame it on that, because crashes are part of cycling."

Note for fantasy cycling fans: Vingegaard's departure radically changes the balance of the race. Those who had him on their team must now rethink their strategy, while those who were counting on Pogačar now find themselves in a huge advantage. Also beware of Visma's domestiques, now free to chase down breakaways and aim for stage wins in the final stages: they could become valuable assets in the games of those who still have transfers available.