As the second mass crash in as many days shook up the Giro d’Italia in Bulgaria, overall favourite Jonas Vingegaard was almost among the victims of the nasty incident which occurred on a wet descent with 23.3km to go, avoiding it by the skin of his teeth.
Vingegaard was well-positioned by the yellow and black jerseys of Visma-Lease a Bike throughout the long 221km stage from Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo, but he was just one spot behind and to the right of the first UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider who went down, taking down a further 20 or so riders with him.
Understandably shaken up having been the victim of similar crashes in the past – at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024, for example – Vingegaard’s thoughts were with his competitors who came down, with Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Ådne Holter all being forced to abandon due to their injuries.
“Well, they crashed just in front of me, so it was pretty close,” Vingegaard told a small group of reporters, after being asked if he felt any déjà vu from that infamous Basque Country crash.
In the Visma-Lease a Bike car behind, sports director Marc Reef confirmed that they had mixed emotions after first hearing that some of their riders had gone down – Wilco Kelderman and Tim Rex, but this was not confirmed yet – and then finding out that Vingegaard had escaped the crash.
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