After having his bike broken in a late crash, Jonas Vingegaard finished stage 5 of the Tour de France on teammate Victor Campenaerts' bike, avoiding total disaster as his Visma-Lease a Bike chased hard to ensure he finished on the same time as Tadej Pogačar.
Visma's lead DS Marc Reef tried to explain the hectic finale at the team bus, noting how what was a moment of mass stress ended up with the result they wanted.
While it was initially unclear whether the Dane had actually gone down, the team have since confirmed that it was due to his derailleur getting broken by a rider coming from behind amid the chaos that the change was required, and that he hadn't hit the desk himself.
"We heard that Jonas was also in the crash, or somewhere involved. Then he got immediately the bike from Victor [Campenaerts], the boys were with him pulling hard for him, and in the end I think everybody what we see now is on the same time at the finish," said Reef at the team bus to small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews.
"We knew that it was a tight corner, also with the sidewalk on the right side, or a small higher line, we knew that corner was coming. The moment how we approached the final was just good, we were together, but in the hectic crash, I think in the end, Jonas got the bike from Victor, we rode hard to the line, and it finished all on the same time."
