BRIZON, France, July 19 (Reuters) - Belgian Remco Evenepoel beat race leader Tadej Pogacar to the finish line to win stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday after Jonas Vingegaard, who had been second in the overall rankings, abandoned the race with a broken collarbone following a crash.
Two-time champion Vingegaard went down with three other riders at a tight corner after his front wheel clipped a kerb about 20km from the finish, and was clearly in pain as he was taken to an ambulance.
Visma-Lease a Bike said Vingegaard, 29, had suffered a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions in the crash.
"Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days," the Danish rider's team added.
Vingegaard's teammate Sepp Kuss was also involved in the crash along with Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates Isaac del Toro and Brandon McNulty.
The three were able to continue but Del Toro was visibly struggling in the final climb to Plateau de Solaison as he tried to keep up with Pogacar and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider Evenepoel.
Evenepoel, who was third overall before Vingegaard's crash, pushed past Pogacar to secure the third Tour de France stage victory of his career and his first this year. Del Toro finished third a few seconds later.
Four-time winner Pogacar is five minutes ahead of Evenepoel, who moved up to second place after the 183.9-km stage from Champagnole.
Pogacar said that being awoken in the early hours for anti-doping test visits that left both him and Vingegaard sleepy ahead of the stage could have been a factor in the Dane's crash.
"We are competitors and also kind of friends," he said.
"I'm really sad to see Jonas crashed and is out of the race. Without him, the Tour will not be the same. I hope he can recover well. I wish him all the best... maybe this was also the consequence of bad sleep."
Evenepoel, too, was sad to see Vingegaard drop out. "Something you never want for anyone," he said of the crash.
The Belgian said of the early-hours testing: "It's quite inhuman to wake us up in the middle of the night."
After a rest day on Monday, the race continues on Tuesday with a 26-km individual time trial starting in Evian-les-Bains.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron; Writing by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Clare Fallon)
