Nightmare day for the dominant team Jumbo-Visma on the 15th stage of the Tour de France: leader Jonas Vingegaard, who also fell himself, lost his two most important helpers on Sunday (07/17/2022).
Around 60 kilometers from the finish, Vingegaard himself fell, but his remaining team-mates were able to pull back up to the peloton and kept the yellow jersey. But that was the only good news for the Dane and his entire team on this memorable day of the tour, which in the end also missed out on the day’s victory by a hair’s breadth: Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) beat Wout van Aert in the sprint.
Dislocated shoulder and set it himself
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic had already given up before the start of the stage. “We made this decision to allow my injuries to heal properly”, said the 32-year-old. Roglic started the tour as one of the favorites, but was only 21st in the overall standings, more than 33 minutes behind.
Roglic had a bad fall on the fifth section from Lille to Arenberg, which covered 19.4 kilometers of cobblestones on the route of the spring classic Paris-Roubaix. He had dislocated his shoulder and then quickly put himself back in place. “I’m proud of my contribution to the current standings and have faith that the team will achieve our yellow and green ambitions.”said Roglic.
Auch Kruijswijk separate from us
It is the second year in a row that Roglic has not finished the Tour de France. Last year he also fell early and finally gave up following the eighth stage in Tignes.
Around 70 kilometers before the finish of the 15th stage, the team of Vingegaard and Roglic had to cope with the next serious failure. The Dutch noble helper Steven Kruijswijk was seriously injured in a fall, holding his right collarbone and had to be taken away by the ambulance. Jumbo-Visma are therefore only six drivers available in the last week of the tour.
Nielsen and Clarke corona positive
In addition, Magnus Cort Nielsen (Denmark/EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Clarke (Australia/Israel-Premier Tech) tested positive for the corona virus on Sunday. The Dane Cort Nielsen had won the tenth stage and was particularly aggressive around the Grand Depart in his native Denmark. Clarke won the cobblestone stage to Arenberg. It’s Corona Falls seven and eight on the tour.
Nils Politt sets accents
Shortly following the start of the stage, Nils Politt from Bora-hansgrohe made his mark. The man from Cologne responded to the first attacks, then broke away with Mikkel Froelich Honoré (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and was only caught once more at kilometer 149.
After all, following the stage he was named the most combative driver of the day and will be on the road with the red start number on Tuesday.
Victory for Jasper Philipsen
After that there were more attacks, but in the end the sprinter teams got serious and drove their stars to the front. In the end, somewhat surprisingly, Philipsen prevailed over his compatriot and green carrier van Aert – it just wasn’t Jumbo-Visma’s day.
Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) said immediately following crossing the finish line on the sports show microphone regarding the heat: “With eight drivers, we needed 150 drinking bottles today, it was brutal. When you feel a burning wind on your skin on the descent, you know it’s really hot.” He said of the team’s performance: “We did the best we might, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. We’re satisfied with our driving style. You can’t blame us for hiding in the field.”