Visma-Lease A Bike administration have mentioned that their riders Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson, who got here down in the identical crash on stage 2 of the Tour de France, are each largely unscathed by their fall and are able to proceed racing.
Jorgenson himself mentioned after the stage that he was stunned that he didn’t damage himself extra badly, given the velocity that each riders got here down, with the worst harm some minor highway rash. Van Aert himself had a scrape on his proper aspect, however nothing extra severe.
The American additional proved there was no main harm by first working for crew chief Jonas Vingegaard on the ultimate climb of the day, the notoriously powerful San Luca, after which ending with the principle group of favourites, 21 seconds down.
Celebrating his twenty fifth birthday on July 1, Jorgenson is at present mendacity 14th total behind yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Group Emirates).
“They’re okay,” sports activities director Grischa Niermann mentioned about Van Aert and Jorgenson earlier than the beginning of stage 3, a 230.9 kilometre trek between Piacenza and Turin, earlier than including jokingly, “Matteo gave himself a pleasant birthday current as a result of he hit a pothole and went down.”
In a really flat stage that appears all however sure to finish in a bunch dash, Van Aert will “probably strive for it, however we’ll see in the course of the stage. Will probably be an extended, lengthy day within the saddle.”
Van Aert himself confirmed that he would doubtless have a go within the bunch dash, telling reporters earlier than stage 3, “That’s the intention. I hope I really feel good on the bike. It has been a tricky weekend and I all the time have a greater likelihood due to the fatigue of the sprinters.”
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, opinions and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Requested after stage 2 in regards to the crash, Jorgenson already mentioned “I surprisingly really feel fairly okay, once I went down I used to be going tremendous quick so I anticipated to be way more damage. However I bought up and someway I simply misplaced pores and skin, principally.”
“It was a reasonably silly crash, I’ve seen it occur 1,000,000 instances with different riders, I had one hand on the bars and the opposite on a feed bag, I used to be getting a bottle and the 2 riders forward of me simply cut up round an enormous gap.”
“ I hit the opening, my left hand slipped off the bars, the remaining is historical past, it’s simply one thing unlucky that occurred. It had by no means occurred to me earlier than however now it has.”
Jorgenson was capable of see how his crew chief Vingegaard arguably had the most effective day of all of the GC favourites – not taking the yellow jersey like Tadej Pogačar, however displaying he is ready to go toe to toe with the Slovenian, at the least on the shorter, steeper climbs.
It was actually spectacular, Jonas was superimpressive, I used to be actually completely happy, I’m happy with him. It was one of many phases that suited that him the worst of the Tour, in comparison with Pogačar, and he defended himself so nicely. Right now was an enormous victory.”
General, Jorgenson mentioned, the opening weekend of the 2024 Tour de France had proven a bunch of optimistic indicators for Vingegaard, again racing after an extended spell of restoration following his main crash in Itzulia Basque Nation.
“[I’ve seen] Nothing however power and confidence, and likewise the way in which he’s descending and dealing with himself within the bunch, it’s spectacular to see.”
“I’ve seen different riders have crashes like he did, and it’s taken them years to come back again to the identical degree of confidence. Jonas is already again, it appears, so I’m simply happy with him.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Tour de France – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage of the race because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra.
