"Disaster": Pogacar team hit hard in horror crash

Stefan Tabeling, dpa

Tadej Pogacar must have been looking anxiously towards the Giro d'Italia in Bulgaria. In a horror crash on the second stage, almost his entire UAE team ended up in the ditch at high speed in the absence of the cycling superstar. The medical report on Sunday morning was correspondingly devastating: Marc Soler from Spain suffered a broken pelvis and Jay Vine from Australia suffered a fractured elbow.

And co-favourite Adam Yates, who reached the finish a long way behind, covered in blood and badly marked, also had to end his Giro dream. A large laceration, abrasions and symptoms of concussion made it impossible for him to continue on the third stage. "What a disaster. I've worked so hard to get fit for the Giro," said Yates, whose twin brother Simon won the Tour of Italy last year.

Chain reaction after Soler's fall

What happened? On a slightly sloping road a good 23 kilometres before the finish in Veliko Tarnovo - the Giro is staging the first three stages in Bulgaria this year - Soler slipped and triggered a chain reaction. A good 35 riders went down, some crashing into the crash barrier with full force. The race had to be neutralised in the meantime. Ambulances were deployed.

Five of the eight UAE riders were involved in the crash. Other professional cyclists also had to abandon the race before the Giro even reached Italy. The Italian Andrea Vendrame suffered a triple vertebral fracture, Santiago Buitrago (Colombia), Adne Holter (Norway) and Matteo Moschetti (Italy) also had to abandon the race with various injuries.

There had already been a heavy crash in the sprint final at the start on Friday. Several riders crashed around 650 metres before the finish, leaving only a small group to decide the winner.

At least the third stage on Sunday went without incident. After 175 kilometres from Plovdiv to Sofia, Frenchman Paul Magnier took the stage win in a sprint ahead of Italian Jonathan Milan and Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen. Magnier had already triumphed in the opening stage in Burgas. The pink jersey will remain on the shoulders of Uruguayan Guillermo Thomas Silva when the peloton sets off for Italy on the rest day on Monday.

First the kangaroo, now the Giro crash

For the UAE team, the sporting side of things will hardly take centre stage. Soler and Yates are actually also intended to be important helpers for Pogacar at the Tour in eight weeks' time. "Starting the Giro like this is really disheartening," said UAE team boss Mauro Gianetti: "It's been a pretty tough year for us, but we're not going to sit idly by and feel sorry for ourselves." The crash injuries at the top racing team have been a feature of the entire season. This is the second time Vine has been hit. At the Tour Down Under, he was brought down by a kangaroo and broke his wrist.

After all, world champion and Tour champion Pogacar has so far been spared any injuries. If necessary, the exceptional Slovenian rider can also take his victories single-handedly.

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