It was a rather slow and sleepy 221km stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday until the rain started to pour on the slippery roads of Bulgaria, leading to a huge crash near the front of the peloton bringing down Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Corbin Strong (NSN) and many more, with four riders forced to abandon, including Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
One of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders was the first to go down, taking almost all of their team down into the metal barrier on the side of the road. A massive pileup came with it with several riders hitting the asphalt and metal hard with tyres blowing all over the place. The other three to abandon were Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) and Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility).
The race was momentarily neutralised, but the race directors decided to resume racing again once onto dryer roads despite the fact that hardly any of the riders affected in the crash had actually made it back in. Yates sees his hopes of repeating his brother, Simon's achievement of winning the race last year go up in smoke as the rider from Greater Manchester lost almost 14 minutes on the peloton. Gee-West did manage to salvage something by only losing 1'01" to the peloton, which is quite remarkable as he was dropped almost as soon as he made contact with the back of the bunch as they headed onto the final climb.
Lidl-Trek posted on X that Gee-West was "making his way to the bunch" while Max Walscheid, who was also caught in the crash, was "riding his own tempo behind." The team added: "Fingers crossed for everyone else involved."
There was around 20 riders who went down with the white jersey of António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) also hitting the deck and seeing his pink chances disappear in these early stages. Yates got back on his bike despite his hands and face being covered in blood and mud. Andrea Vendrame (Jayco-AlUla) was the last man to resume riding after a lengthy medical check. However, the former Giro stage winner did finish 17'30" down alongside NSN duo of Jake Stewart and Dion Smith, who also came down.
Vine was taken away on a stretcher whereas Holter appeared to fail a concussion test. We are awaiting news on Soler and Buitrago, both of whom were confirmed as DNFs by the commissaires after the stage.
Stage 2 abandons
The official commissaires' report confirms four in-race abandons, plus Matteo Moschetti (Pinarello-Q36.5) as a non-starter following his stage 1 crash.
#11 Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious)
#196 Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
#198 Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
#213 Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility)
#117 Matteo Moschetti (Pinarello-Q36.5)*
*didn't start due to his stage 1 crash
GC consequences for Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates-XRG
It is always devastating when you put in so much time, effort and sacrifices into a race, especially a Grand Tour, just to see your GC chances dashed by a crash. And when it comes so early in the race it must make it worse, somehow. Lidl-Trek are by no means out of the race for pink and, in fact, are reasonably well placed. While Giulio Ciccone said he was only riding for stage wins he has found himself just six seconds off new pink jersey, Guillermo Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana).
As previously mentioned, Gee-West only lost a minute on his rivals with the whole three weeks stretching out in front of them, this isn't a devastating blow for the Canadian champion considering the situation he could have been in.
As for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the news keeps getting worse. They lose their two main stage winning hopes as well as key GC domestiques to abandons in Vine and Soler as the former continues his horrible luck with crashes after he crashed out of the Volta a Catalunya and was brought down by a kangaroo in a crash at the Tour Down Under.
Their GC hopes also lie in tatters. They do have Jan Christen and Igor Arrieta up there with the former on six seconds and the latter at just over a minute. However, neither have shown the ability to match the top GC names. Arrieta may be the best option for a possible top 10 while Christen can look at stage wins with Yates hoping to recover something in the next few days, if he does continue.
After the stage, Morgado said on Cycling Pro Net's YouTube channel: "I think everyone knew that someone was going to crash with this and we were the ones with the bad luck.
"The road is completely slippery. it is like everybody knows so this is why there's the big fight so we go outside of the corner and we crash. Let's see (what we do next). I also feel a little bit of pain but we are not going to quit."
We wish all the riders the very best in their recovery and await further information.
Cover image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
