Pogacar crashes into Vingegaard's team car before Tour stage start

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COURCHEVEL, France - Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar suffered a big scare on Thursday when he bumped into the team car of his chief rival Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 18th stage, a brutal mountain trek from Vif to the Col de la Loze.

"We were going to the start line and the cars were also going... we were cruising behind the (Visma-Lease a Bike) car, maybe a bit too close and he suddenly... maybe I don't know if he wanted to brake check me, to check my brakes," Slovenian Pogacar said with a smile.

"I was not ready because I did not see the reason why he had to stop urgently so we crashed into the car, I hit my...  but it's okay, I'm okay we're good," he added.

Pogacar was with Haoyang Zhao, a member of his UAE Emirates-XRG team's communication department, when he hit the Visma-Lease a Bike car.

"The riders were on their way to sign-on and the automatic brake sensor went off in the car in front of them," a UAE Emirates-XRG spokesperson said.

Pogacar leads Dane Vingegaard by 4 minutes 15 seconds going into the 18th stage. REUTERS

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