Pair of Canadian riders crash out of Giro d’Italia

Canadian riders Michael Woods and Riley Pickrell are out of the Giro d’Italia.

The two were involved in separate crashes Wednesday with IsraelPremier Tech teammate Nadav Raisberg going down in the same accident as Woods on the fifth stage of the Giro, which precedes the Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta on the Grand Tour calendar.

Pickrell’s face was bloodied and he lost his helmet in a crash with four other riders. Woods, Raisberg and another four riders were involved in a crash 10 kilometres later.

Israel-Premier Tech said Woods was ruled out after showing symptoms of a mild concussion overnight.

The team then made a “late decision” to withdraw Pickrell from the race.

“His face bore the impact of the crash (Wednesday) and although he is feeling well enough to start, some slight confusion has been identified and the team is not willing to take the risk given the possibility of concussion,” the team said in a statement. “Riley needs time to recover and today’s stage is too risky, so the team has made the difficult decision to withdraw him from the race.”

The crash left Woods 107th in the general classification standings while Israel’s Raisberg, who broke his hand, was 164th and Pickrell 169th.

“We were gearing up for the climb when one rider caused a chain-reaction crash.” said Raisberg.

“My teammate, Mike Woods, fell, and I, who was riding right behind him, crashed over him and was thrown up. When I landed on my hands, I immediately knew something was broken, but I got back on the bike and prayed I was wrong.”