"His wife called and asked, ‘Did you see that?’" - Wout van Aert on the moment he saw Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France crash
Cycling
Wout van Aert watched the Tour de France from afar after missing out through injury. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider returns to racing this week at the Tour of Denmark after injuries from a training crash ultimately ended his Tour ambitions.
Crashing in early June, van Aert started the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and even picked up a stage win. However, things quickly took a turn after he left the race due to recurring pain in his elbow, an area he injured in a training crash before the race.
Tests in belgium put his Tour de France in doubt as wounds on his his elbow became infected. With a race against time and his preparation severely disruptd, the decision was made for the Paris-Roubaix winner to stay at home.
Van Aert's presence was missed at the Tour, and the Belgian felt the same. He found it difficult to watch the opening team time trial stage before growing into enjoying the spectacle from the outside.
"I found the team time trial on the first day the hardest. I wanted to be there anyway, and then we actually won," van Aert told Het Nieuwsblad.
Wout van Aert on stage 5 of the 2026 Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Van Aert accepts reality of missing Tour de France
"After that, I accepted the reality of the situation and didn’t dwell on it too much anymore. After seven years of the Tour de France, it’s also nice to be able to have a completely different July for a change."
"But the Tour is, of course, the Tour. It’s not that hard to follow it. Just open your phone in the evening and you’re right in the thick of it, whether you want to be or not. I did make a point of watching 'Vive Le Vélo' a few times."
On stage 15, as Visma pushed hard to tee up a potential attack from Jonas Vingegaard, the Dane suffered a crash in a corner. Second place in the general classification at the time, Vingegaard was hoping to mount a challenge at Tadej Pogacar on the day's mountain-top finish.
Van Aert described finding out after receiving a call from the team doctor's wife about the crash, leading to him tuning in to witness the aftermath.
“I was just in the car with the team doctor after a training session when it happened. His wife called and asked, ‘Did you see that?’ We immediately turned on a live stream. The rest of the car ride was very quiet.
"I was watching from a distance, so I'm not 100 percent sure what was going on within the team, but despite Pogacar's dominance, I felt that we still had the morale and confidence to go all out. Which is exactly what we were doing in that stage."
Van Aert thinks the crash impacted the future of the race, noting that Visma would have continued to mount a challenge towards Pogacar's dominance.
He added: "But also for the Tour. Pogacar’s main challenger is out of the race. In recent years, our team has been pretty much the only one racing to win rather than settling for places of honour."
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Van Aert on Vingegaard nightime test
In terms of the night time doping tests of Vingegaard and Pogacar on the eve of the crash, the Belgian believes that it affected the race and could have been a contributing factor to the crash.
“That surprised me. I’ve never experienced that myself. If anti-doping agencies have evidence that that timing is necessary to detect certain substances. I’m definitely in favour of proper testing.”
"But Jonas was the only one checked at 2 am. Not a single other competitor was woken up at the same time. That affects the race one way or another, and I absolutely cannot accept that. There simply has to be a clear standard. Now someone has been singled out who—no matter how you look at it—had a disrupted night’s sleep. That had an impact on the race," he declared.
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
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- many people advise him to grow slowly and rather do giro and/or vuelta instead of tdf. but i can totally understand that he is not satisfied with taking over once pogi declines, but instead beat him in his prime. so if he goes for tdf again, i‘m all for it. let‘s hope that pogi recovers soon!Ketterechts07-11-2026
- So gracious to offer something no-one would be prepared to pay for. The Giro is not the Tour and doesn’t command the same interest or attract the same “elite” (those willing to pay to be a part of something they consider has ego boosting potential). Roadside viewing will always largely remain free for everyone outside circuits. Introduction of a symbolic entrance to mountain climbs is worthy of exploration. Asking 1-2€ isn’t going to repulse real fans (most will spend 50-100€ on their outing that day all things included) but will prevent a portion of the total knobhead thrillseekers who will join in any large gathering as long as it’s free, just because they’re attracted to crowds, without which it it difficult for them to work up their anti-social behaviour.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- How is radio going to help when someone went over a cliff or bridge or off the roadside into a forest unnoticed and is laying there unconscious?Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- Yeah man...PogiSloFans07-11-2026
- any rider less than 25 whether they are really ready for the position of leadership of GT is probably not the case. I think Pogi himself suffered when he was defeated by Jonas in the TDF twice. But that would be the team's job to ensure support so that they can bounce back. It requires a team and time to get back up and win after getting knocked down.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I'm very glad he got the big late Quickstep Vuelta win and I hope he has a few left for Euskaltel-Euskadi.flyer07-11-2026
- My memories of Ivan Basso aren't good but I liked his sister Elisa ok.flyer07-11-2026
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