Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard was brought down by an errant photographer after crossing the line on stage 16 of the race. The incident occurred on the legendary climb of Mont Ventoux, where the Dane finished second, losing another two seconds to overall leader Tadej Pogacar.
The stage was won by Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal-QuickStep, who outsprinted Ireland’s Ben Healy in a thrilling battle on one of the Tour’s most iconic summits. Vingegaard, who had attacked multiple times to try to distance Pogacar, could not break the Slovenian, who counter-attacked in the closing kilometres and eked out a small gap in the sprint.
Speaking after the stage, Vingegaard expressed frustration: “Some photographer just ran straight in front of me straight after the finish line, I don't know what he was doing. I went down. People in the finish area should use their eyes a bit more.” The Danish rider did not appear injured but was clearly irritated by the collision.
Despite the setback, Vingegaard took positives from his performance: “I was feeling very good today, happy with the attacks I tried to do, of course I didn’t gain any time but I take a lot of motivation from today.” He now sits 4 minutes 15 seconds behind Pogacar in the general classification, with German youngster Florian Lipowitz a further 4 minutes 48 seconds back in third place.
