Vingegaard survives ‘heart attack’ slip to virtually wrap up Tour de France

ROCAMADOUR, France: Jonas Vingegaard survived the “heart attack” of a near fall on Saturday’s individual time-trial to virtually wrap up the Tour de France and now only needs to cross the Champs-Elysees finish line in Paris on Sunday to guarantee the champion’s yellow jersey. Team Jumbo’s Vingegaard tops the overall standings 3min 34sec ahead of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar, while Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers, the 2018 winner, stands third at 8min 13sec. Frenchman David Gaudu of FDJ and Aleksandr Vlasov of Bora round out the top five ahead of Sunday’s stage to Paris which is traditionally a ceremonial run.

Saturday’s time-trial was won by Wout van Aert ahead of his Danish teammate Vingegaard, meaning Jumbo have six stage wins, the yellow jersey, the green sprint jersey and the polka dot mountains jersey. Two years ago, Pogacar famously overturned a 57-second deficit on the penultimate day time-trial on La Planche des Belles Filles to snatch victory from Primoz Roglic. But on Saturday, Vingegaard flew down the ramp last of the 139 surviving riders and set a relentlessly high pace through the baking country roads meaning a battle of nerves with Pogacar never really emerged.

He did, however, suffer a late wobble, losing his back wheel which slid over gravel into a gutter, but just managed to right himself. “I nearly had a heart attack,” Vingegaard admitted. “I grew up, I became a better rider.