This Thursday marked two weeks since the fatality. Time is always the enemy of cyclists. But in this case even more so. Well, it was Jonas Vingegaard, the winner of the last two Tours de France. He was still in the Txagorritxu hospital, in Vitoria, where he underwent surgery. A pneumothorax detected due to the hard fall advised against transferring him. Until this Tuesday, 12 days after the accident, the Dane left the hospital on his own.
These are the first images of the cyclist since he fell on a curve descending the Olaeta pass on April 4 and had to be evacuated by ambulance and leave Itzulia. Vingegaard appears at the exit of the medical center with his right arm in a sling (he broke his collarbone and underwent surgery) but with a smile and a gesture of approval with the thumb of his left hand.
In a statement from the Visma – Lease a Bike team, Vingegaard thanked them for their care and support. “Hello everyone, it is time to leave the hospital. I want to thank all the medical staff for taking such good care of me. And I also want to thank everyone for their moral support. I have received many messages, gifts and drawings. It’s been comforting,” she explained.
The consequences of the fall, in which Roglic and Evenepoel also went to the ground and went home, were, in addition to the broken collarbone, two fractured ribs, a pneumothorax and a lung contusion. Given the severity, the cyclist's wife traveled from her home in Switzerland to the Basque capital. Her concern has been high but her leaving the hospital and her looking good is reassuring.
“Now is the time to fully recover,” said Vingegaard. There are 74 days left until the departure of the Tour in Florence on June 29. The Dane, after the big scare, has a very difficult time arriving in full condition at the start of the race but will try to improve his chances of repeating his successes and getting his third yellow jersey.
