Jonas Vingegaard has suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and collarbone less than three months ago. He spent eight days with a lung drain and almost two weeks in a Basque Country hospital, but today he began the
Tour de France with dreams of winning it for the third consecutive time. But the defending champion is thankful just to be returning to the race that has marked his career.
"It's really great to be here. At the start of a race again. Finally pinning on a race number again. This is actually quite emotional for me", Vingegaard said in words to Eurosport this morning. He leads in Team Visma | Lease a Bike, a vote of confidence given to him despite the difficulties that have been tackled over the past few months. The Dane resumed training just over month and a half ago and although several team members admit he is not at his best form, he certainly is fit enough to be in the race for the top results otherwise the Dutch team would not be supporting him the way they are.