Cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar must have looked anxiously at the Giro d’Italia in Bulgaria: in a horror crash on the second stage, almost the entire UAE team ended up in a ditch at high speed in his absence. The medical results on Sunday morning were correspondingly catastrophic: Marc Soler fractured his pelvis and Jay Vine fractured his elbow.
And co-favorite Adam Yates, who reached the finish line covered in blood with a huge gap, ultimately had to end his Giro dream too.
A gigantic laceration, abrasions and symptoms of a concussion made it impossible to continue on the third stage.
“What a disaster. I worked so hard to get fit for the Giro,” complained Yates, whose twin brother Simon won the Tour of Italy last year.
Soler’s fall triggers a chain reaction
On a slightly sloping road around 23 kilometers from the finish in Veliko Tarnovo – the Giro is hosting the first three stages in Bulgaria this year – Soler slipped and triggered a chain reaction.
As a result, 35 drivers fell to the ground, some of them hitting the guardrail with full force. The race had to be neutralized in the meantime, ambulances were on duty, and the videos spread like wildfire on the internet.
Five of the eight UAE riders were involved, and other professional cyclists also had to give up the race before the Giro even reached Italy: The Italian Andrea Vendrame suffered a triple vertebral fracture, and Santiago Buitrago (Colombia), Adne Holter (Norway) and Matteo Moschetti (Italy) also had to give up with various injuries.
Soler and Yates are actually expected to be important helpers for Pogacar on the Tour in eight weeks. “Starting the Giro like this is really disheartening,” complained UAE team boss Mauro Gianetti: “It’s been a pretty tough year for us, but we’re not going to sit around idly and feel sorry for ourselves.”
