A stalled motorbike blocked Jonas Vingegaard on his attempt to win stage 17 of the 2023 Tour de France.
Vingegaard was climbing the giant Col de la Loze, a 28.1km slog averaging 6% gradient to the highest point in this year’s race, at the end of the Tour’s queen stage.
The Dane had already shaken off his main rival for the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar, and set off in pursuit of the leader on the road, Austrian rider Felix Gall, when he was brought to a standstill by a logjam ahead.
A media motorbike appeared to stall on the mountain, forcing the car behind it to stop suddenly. Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma teammate Wilco Kelderman were close behind and had to stop before squeezing through a narrow gap between the car and another bike amid a swarm of spectators.
Some fans gave Vingegaard a push to help him get back on his way but in truth he was unlikely to have ever caught Gall, who eventually won the stage with a healthy gap to second-placed Simon Yates, with the man in the yellow jersey eventually finishing fourth.
Gall, making his Tour debut, delivered a first win of this year’s race for the AG2R Citroen team, having unexpectedly taken over the leadership role within the squad after Ben O’Connor’s overall ambitions faded in the first week.
“I don’t know what to say,” the 25-year-old said. “This whole year has been incredible and now to do so well in the Tour and to win the queen stage it’s incredible. I just want to say thank you to the team, they have given me so much.
“It’s not easy to do a three-week stage race and then to also have the role of leader after a few days, I slowly focused on that and I was stressing myself about that, it’s not easy but the last few days I’ve been more comfortable. I was afraid I would be caught in the last kilometre but it’s incredible.”
