The Tour de France is folded, Wout van Aert can return. Jonas Vingegaard’s teammate will not start the 18th stage this Thursday, preferring to return to his wife, who is about to give birth. “In consultation with the team, we have decided that my place is now at home,” he explains in a video published by Jumbo-Visma. The doctor has determined that labor is imminent, which is why we have made this decision. »
For the first time in five participations, the Belgian, green jersey last year, leaves the Tour without a stage victory. However, he did not go far, finishing second in San Sebastian and Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, and third in Limoges and Combloux. “It’s a strange feeling, but it’s not a dilemma,” he says. It’s an easy decision. I always told myself that I would come home when my wife needed it. This time has come. »
“The guys all understood the decision, they are 100% behind me,” he adds. The hardest part is done for the Dutch team: its leader, Vingegaard, is 7’35” ahead of his runner-up, Tadej Pogacar, three days from the finish on the Champs-Elysées.