Dope Tests and Personal Blame: Vingegaard and Visma Open up on the Crash That Changed the Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour de France and changed the trajectory of the entire race in a dramatic day on and off the bike Sunday.

Vingegaard was forced out of the Tour with a broken collarbone after his high-speed fall 20km from the finish of stage 15 on Sunday. The incident raised speculation over the role of a controversial 2 a.m. doping control, a wayward moto, and a team that was pacing too hard.

Vingegaard recounted the devastating crash that ended his race Sunday night.

Speaking to Danish broadcaster TV2 while dosed up on painkillers and wrapped into a sling, the 29-year-old brushed off his injury and took personal blame for his fall.

“I’m doing surprisingly well,” Vingegaard told TV2. “It’s obviously very disappointing for us to be forced out like this, and for the Tour to end this way.

“But that’s cycling. Fortunately, it’s only a broken collarbone.”

Vingegaard was first to fall as he rode fourth in a Visma-Lease a Bike train that led the peloton Sunday.

The Danish superstar lost control and slid into the curb as the bunch blasted into a fast right-hander complicated by a roundabout and road furniture.

“We were going for the stage win, and we perhaps went into this roundabout a bit too fast,” Vingegaard said Sunday night. “Then my front wheel just skidded out. I didn’t have time to do anything.

“That’s just how cycling races are sometimes,” Vingegaard said. “It’s just a massive shame for us, to be completely honest.”

Mislead by a moto?

Vingegaard’s teammate, Davide Piganzoli, told TV reporters at the finish that the moto leading the race confused the following pack.

The vehicle took an errant trajectory through the bend, leaving riders to make late adjustments to their lines.

Vingegaard refused to place the blame elsewhere.

“Maybe the motorbike made a mistake, but we can’t rely on the motorbikes,” Vingegaard told TV2. “We have to use our own judgement.

“People make mistakes, and there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

Visma director refuses to be drawn on dope test debate

Many suggested after the stage that lost sleep and clouded concentration could have caused Vingegaard’s error.

Even yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar speculated on it during his press conference after the stage Sunday.

He and Vingegaard were controversially woken for routine dope tests in the middle of the night between two huge mountain stages in the Vosges.

“Jonas did his test at two in the morning. It got me thinking that maybe this is also a reason [for the crash],” Pogačar said. “One night that your sleep is ruined, so maybe you’re a little bit less concentrated in the descent. History is ruined.

“I don’t blame that, but it could also be a little bit connected,” Pogačar said.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s lead DS Marc Reef wouldn’t be drawn on what became the hottest topic of a dramatic day. Remco Evenepoel’s stunning mountaintop victory over Pogačar and Isaac de Toro was almost overshadowed by the dope test debate.

“I think it’s not something to speculate on that,” Reef told reporters at the finish line.

Reef instead returned to the role of the lead moto.

“The boys were ready, Jonas was ready. He was feeling good during the stage,” Reef said. “The crash itself, it was more because the motorbike had to brake because of the corner that was suddenly there.”

Whether due to fatigue, handling error, or a misleading motorbike, Visma-Lease a Bike is left rudderless for the final week of this Tour de France.

Piganzoli, Matteo Jorgenson, and Sepp Kuss will have to make the most of their own chances this week in the Alps.

What next for Vingegaard?

This is the third year in a row that Vingegaard’s Tour de France hopes have been severely impacted by misfortune.

His crash in the Basque Country in April 2024 put him off the wheel before he even started that year’s race. Vingegaard admitted he only recently felt fully back to form after he fractured seven ribs, his sternum, and punctured both lungs in the brutal fall.

In 2025, a concussion in spring torpedoed Vingegaard’s preparation.

The four-time grand tour winner revealed only a few weeks ago that the toll and sacrifice of racing had put him at a career crossroads at the end of 2025.

Speaking Sunday, Vingegaard said he’s already thinking about what’s next.

What that will be is to be revealed.

“I just talked to my family a little bit. That was the most important thing for me,” Vingegaard told TV2. “We’ve come up with a plan for what’s going to happen now, and I’ve talked to some of the team.

“It’s no use hanging your head. It just makes it worse.”

The Vuelta a España is unlikely to be an option for Vingegaard. He already won the 2026 Giro d’Italia and raced two weeks of the Tour de France. He may be lured back to the saddle for the Montréal road worlds.

It’s also not out of the question that we don’t see Vingegaard race again until 2027.