A mass crash has shaken up the closing kilometres of stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia, with dozens of riders being held up by the fall which partially blocked the route. Cyclingnews confirmed that Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) were also among the GC riders who lost time.
Some 30 riders were able to steer around the crash, with Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) claiming the host nation’s first win of the 2023 race.
The crash seemingly was caused when two riders tangled in the centre of the pack and then rippled out to the right side of the peloton, on a section of straight road in a fast, flat finale.
The crash took place some 800 metres before the three-kilometres-to-go ‘secure zone’, inside which riders are automatically awarded the same time if caught up in a crash or puncturing.
“It was caused when the road narrowed,” race commentator and former Giro d’Italia winner Stefano Garzelli told Italian television.
Various Trek-Segafredo riders were amongst those caught up in the fall, according to Italian television, as well as Max Kanter, Movistar’s lead-out man for sprinter Fernando Gaviria, and Martin Tusveld (DSM).
Although race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and arch-rival Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) were not affected by the crash, a number of other GC contenders were said to have been blocked behind.
Subject to final confirmation and commissaires decisions about the crash and its consequences, Italian TV named Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) amongst the riders who had lost around 19 seconds.
Updates to follow.
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