"I know I can't do anything about Jonas falling, but I was in the car" - Visma DS admits he took Vingegaard's Basque Country crash personally

The 2024 Itzulia Basque Country was a race that won't soon be forgotten. Sadly, that is also to do with incidents that happen away from the actual fight for victory as a massive crash saw the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel among others leave the race in an ambulance.

Vingegaard especially was badly hit by the crash. The Dane left the race on a stretcher, heading into the back of an ambulance with an oxygen mask, suffering serious injuries such as a broken collarbone, several broken ribs and most worryingly, a punctured lung that left the Team Visma | Lease a Bike in intensive care. As proven by his more than creditable Tour de France performance, the crash amazingly didn't completely wipe out Vingegaard's hopes for the season, but that didn't stop it having a big effect on team sports director, Frans Maassen. 

"I take things personally. I know: I can't do anything about Jonas falling, but I was in the car behind him to coach him," Maassen recalls of the incident in conversation with Wieler Revue. "Then you feel very unhappy when someone is in such a mess. Also about yourself. Really taking the blame is not the right term, but I go through all kinds of scenarios in my head to see what I could have done differently. Just like after the incident between Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen in the Tour de Pologne."

As touched upon there, this also wasn't Maassen's first experience of such a serious crash. "I also said that Dylan had to get through the last corner well. I don't think I could do anything about it, but you do have a certain responsibility," he explains. "The day after the accident in Poland, I rode to the start with lead in my shoes. I felt so bad about what had happened. I can't just shake that off."