Crash leaves Thomas Giro hopes in tatters
Parked police motorbike takes out Sky riders Welshman drops from second place to 17th
British hopes at the 100th Giro d’italia suffered a massive blow yesterday when Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates found themselves among a host of riders taken out by a police motorbike parked on the side of the road approaching the final climb of the day, to Blockhaus.
Team Sky’s Thomas – who was clearly furious – suffered most. The Welshman’s shoulder popped out of its socket, and while he was able to remount and continue, the 30-year-old finished more than five minutes down on the stage winner and new race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), dropping from second on general classification to 17th, 5:14 in arrears. Thomas’s hopes are all but over.
Yates – who finished fourth at the Tour de France last summer and was also hopeful of finishing high up on GC in the Giro – suffered similar losses. The Bury-born OricaScott rider is now 16th, 4:49 behind.
The controversy was triggered when Wilco Kelderman ( Team Sunweb) was unable to avoid a police motorbike parked up on the lefthand side of the road. He swung to his right, causing a domino effect in the bunch that took out virtually the entire Sky team, including their co-leader, Mikel Landa.
The incident led to renewed calls for the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, to do something about motor vehicles in professional bike races.
There have been a number of incidents in recent years, some of them extremely serious. The most high-profile involved Chris Froome, who made global headlines by running up Mont Ventoux at the Tour de France last summer after damaging his bike when his group crashed into a motorbike.
Even more serious was the crash which caused the death of Belgian cyclist Antoine Demoitié at GentWevelgem last spring. Although that was ultimately deemed not to be the fault of the driver, the previous month another Belgian rider, Stig Broeckx, was knocked off his bike at Kuurne-brussels-kuurne by a passing medic motorbike, sustaining brain damage.
And Yates himself profited from an incident at the 2015 Clásica de San Sebastián when Greg van Avermaet [BMC] was knocked off his bike by a motorbike in the final kilometres.
“It’s ridiculous,” Thomas said. “That shouldn’t happen. We were all racing for the bottom of the climb and next thing I know someone in front of me hits the motorbike and we go down. And my shoulder popped out as well. I felt good but then I crashed and that was it. Race over. It’s very disappointing.”
Asked what his hopes now were for the rest of the Giro, Thomas added: “I don’t know. It’s too early to say. I need to settle down. I’m a bit angry at the minute. We need to sit down and work it out.”
Brian Smith, the former British road champion, acting as a pundit on Eurosport, said he felt Thomas could still challenge for GC. The peloton have a rest day today before a time trial tomorrow that Thomas had been targeting.
“Don’t completely write off Geraint,” Smith said. “Although he has lost five minutes he can recover [some of that] in the time trial. He’s obviously on good form. There’s no reason he can’t finish on the podium in Milan.” Smith also commended the race organisers for not neutralising the stage.
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford gave a very measured response. “These things happen in sport sometimes,” he said. “You just have to stay calm. Try not to overreact. Of course it’s emotional [but] my role is to keep the guys calm and assess the situation.
“The motorbike shouldn’t have been there, frankly. I’m sure the guy who was riding the motorbike knows that, too.
“I think we’ll leave it at that. I do think we need to go back, look at it, and ask the question, ‘ Why was it there? How did it happen?’ But we fight on. That’s it.”