Tour de France 2025: Tadej Pogacar crashes into Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team car before huge queen stage
By Ben Snowball
Updated 24/07/2025 at 13:50 GMT+1
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Tadej Pogacar’s Tour de France took a surreal twist when he crashed into the back of Jonas Vingegaard’s team car before Stage 18. The incident, jokingly described by Pogacar as an unexpected brake test, added more drama ahead of a brutal queen stage in the Alps - but the Slovenian insisted he was fine. Pogacar led Vingegaard by 4'15" in the general classification ahead of Thursday's mountain test.
TDF flashback: 'I'm gone, I'm dead' - Pogacar cracks on Col de la Loze in 2023
Video credit: TNT Sports
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) had a bizarre crash with a team car belonging to Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike outfit before the start of Stage 18 at the Tour de France.
The incident happened as the Slovenian made his way to sign-on ahead of the queen stage on Thursday, only for the vehicle to stop abruptly in front of him - with Pogacar unable to avoid a collision.
"We were cruising behind the car, maybe a bit too close, then he suddenly wanted to check my brakes!" Pogacar told ITV Sport.
"I was not ready because I did not see anyone in front, so I didn't see the reason he needed to stop urgently. So I crashed into the car."
Pogacar, who intimated he hit his chin in the collision, added: "But it’s OK."
It was already shaping up to be a bruising day for the race leader, who returns to the haunting slopes of the Col de la Loze - the site of his infamous "I’m gone, I’m dead" radio call in 2023, when Vingegaard blew him away en route to a second Tour title.
This time, Pogacar has a 4’15" buffer in the general classification and revenge in mind. But he is not expecting it to come easily.
"I'm ready for him to go full. Today they will try, it's the queen stage, it's full-on from start to finish," he added.
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Why the finale of the Tour de France is different in 2025 - Stage 21 explained
Video credit: TNT Sports
Thursday's stage starts in Vif at just 294 metres, and ends 171.5 kilometres later atop the Col de la Loze at 2,304m, taking in two other mythical climbs along the way: the Col du Glandon and the Col de la Madeleine.
Could Vingegaard claw that time back?
"I don't think we're trying to dramatise it by saying 'anything could happen'," said Ineos Grenadiers star Luke Rowe.
"5,500m of climbing is outrageous, also adding in 67km worth of categorised climbing.
"The Col de la Loze, it's the highest point of the Tour de France at 2,300m. Altitude can affect different riders in different ways.
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"Of course we've seen Pogi deal with high performance and racing at that altitude time and time before, so it's not saying that he's not adequate, he's not used to that - he is.
"But at the end of a day like that, after two and a half weeks of racing, anything can happen."
However, Pogacar is hoping to bury the ghosts of 2023.
"It's been annoying hearing 'I'm gone, I'm dead' on Eurosport these past few years," he said after Stage 17.
"They repeat that quote during every commercial break. Let's rewrite that story."
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