Panic and doubts as Egan Bernal dropped on innocuous climb at Giro d’Italia

The hopes for Egan Bernal to recapture the pink leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia looked dangerously close to a nightmare on Tuesday, as the Netcompany Ineos climber rolled backwards from the peloton on the single categorised climb of stage 4.

The 2021 Giro champion had put his climbing abilities on display Saturday in Bulgaria, moving effortlessly across a trio of climbs on stage 2, along the way snatching six bonus seconds at the Red Bull KM and jumping more than 100 places into third on the general classification.