Double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard has revealed that his injuries were so bad in the Itzulia Basque Country crash this spring that he thought he was going to die.
In a revealing, emotionally charged, end-of-year interview with t on Danish TV broadcaster dr.dk, the 28-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike rider and his wife Trine Marie Vingegaard Hansen looked back at the terrible mass pile-up on the descent of the Olaeta on stage 4 of the Basque stage race - and the life-threatening injuries that Vingegaard suffered as a result.
With seven broken ribs, a fractured sternum, his collarbone in pieces and both lungs punctured, Vingegaard was one of the worst of those affected.
"I had some internal bleeding that means I'd either drown in my own blood or die from bleeding to death," Vingegaard told dr.dk in the 'Sportsommeren 2024: Sekunder vi husker' programme.
"So, yeah... I thought that was the end of it."
"I couldn't breathe for the first ten seconds. I already knew that something is wrong."
"When I finally could breathe again, I coughed up blood. That's when I know it was completely crazy."
Vingegaard explained that with 30 kilometres to go, the Olaeta had already seen all the favourites move to the front over the top of the climb and even before the very fast descent had begun, he had a feeling that something was amiss and there was "tension in the bunch that shouldn't be there."
Then on the sweeping right-hand corner where the crash happened.
"Because there has been a battle for position and due to bad road conditions, I can't really brake. And then the bike just slips in front of me because I'm simply going too fast."
As a result of the crash, 11 riders abandoned, the race itself was partially suspended for the remainder of the stage and cycling's entire season suffered multiple knock-on effects. Vingegaard had never previously not tried to get back up on the bike after a crash, he added, but after this fall, he knew he wasn't going anywhere.
As TV images controversially continued to show scenes from the accident, his wife Trine Marie Vingegaard Hansen was watching in Denmark. Despite being pregnant, she immediately began making plans on how to get to the Basque Country. By the time the team contacted her half an hour after the crash, she and her daugher were already en route to the airport.
"I was glad he's alive, and I hoped he didn't have any brain-damaged. We can live with everything else," Trine Marie Vingegaard Hansen told dr.dk of her recollections of a hugely traumatic day.
Fortunately Vingegaard health improved steadily, although he initially had serious doubts about whether he wanted to go on racing. It was only as he recovered that he changed his mind.
"When I was lying on the ground, I thought that if I survive this, I will end my career. But later we talked about it a lot, and we both thought I should continue. Because it is still my passion."
Although he was unable to race before the summer, Vingegaard then went on to place second overall in the Tour de France. Even if he was unable to defend his 2022 and 20023 titles, he nonetheless finished on the podium for the fourth straight year.
Asked in a separate interview earlier this month with Danish media including Ekstra Bladet what he could do to improve his racing condition compared to 2024, Vingegaard answered; "I don't know if I can do that much differently, [but] what I can do is maybe not crashing. I lost an incredible amount of the preparation I should have had. It was far from perfect."
Vingegaard also recognised in the same interview that given Tadej Pogačar's stunning domination in the race this summer, the performance level necessary for a rider to win another Tour de France has risen again.
Despite his accident, Vingegaard was racing more strongly on certain key summit finishes like the Plateau de Beille compared to his overall climbing power output of two years ago, he revealed. But overall Pogačar had now pushed the bar even higher.
"Compared to what I could do before, this has been much better on the Plateau de Beille. I remember that the first year I won the Tour, [my power output] is almost nothing compared to what we rode in terms of wattage this year.
"I could see what watts I was using, and he was outpacing me, so he deserved to win. To beat him I have to go up a level again next year. I think I can do that."
