After horror fall

Vingegaard: “Thought I was choking on my blood”

Cyclist Jonas Vingegaard was scared to death after his horror crash in April! The 28-year-old Dane revealed this in a documentary for "DR Sporten". 

"I couldn't breathe for the first ten seconds. Even then, I knew something was wrong," Vingegaard recalls. "When I could finally breathe again, I spat up blood. I thought I was bleeding internally, which meant I was either going to choke on my blood or bleed to death."

Vingegaard had crashed heavily on a descent during the Tour of the Basque Country on April 4. The Tour title defender broke a collarbone, several ribs and a finger. The biggest problem, however, was his punctured lung, which led to the bleeding.

Particularly bad: his wife Trine saw the terrible fall live on TV. Vingegaard was hospitalized for a total of twelve days, part of which he even spent in intensive care.

Tour success instead of career end
"When I was lying on the ground, I thought that I would end my career if I survived this," says Vingegaard. But in consultation with his family, he decided to carry on after all. Just three months after the crash, the first stage of the Tour de France was on the program, and he was able to win the eleventh stage again, finishing second overall behind the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.