Whereas Tadej Pogačar’s crash at Strade Bianche supplied probably the most dramatic second of the day, he was removed from the one sufferer on the brutal 213km route, with solely 98 riders making it to the end in Siena and an enormous listing of accidents being confirmed after the mud settled on a crash-filled version.
Strade Bianche isn’t any stranger to crashes, with the slender gravel tracks and excessive speeds on dusty asphalt roads typically resulting in a number of incidents. Nonetheless, when the reside broadcast began, it was a shock to see solely 30-40 riders remaining within the peloton.
The infernal tempo set by Pogačar’s UAE Group Emirates-XRG, which resulted within the quickest version but, and a brand new, harder parcours weren’t the one causes of this, with a number of groups revealing the heavy medical toll taken on the peloton in early off-camera crashes.
Max Poole (Picnic PostNL), Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck) all broke a collarbone after crashing in Saturday’s brutal version.
Poole, a rising younger British GC prospect, will “probably endure surgical procedure”, in keeping with his crew physician, whereas Dewulf and Versrynge’s teammates Clement Berthet and Xandro Meurrise additionally crashed out, with the previous sustaining a “deep wound on his knee.”
There have been additional fractures for Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), who would require surgical procedure for a damaged wrist, and Javi Serrano (Polti VisitMalta), who fractured the pinnacle of his radius whereas making an attempt to bridge throughout to the breakaway.
The eventual winner, Pogačar, prevented severe damage when he slid out and crashed 50km from the road, as did former Strade Bianche winner Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), who crashed on the identical asphalt nook and suffered comparable abrasions to his left shoulder.
David Gaudu and Romain Gregoire (Groupama FDJ) additionally did not end the race after crashing a number of occasions, however their wounds had been solely superficial.
“David [Gaudu] was concerned within the first massive fall of the day, which took out round twenty riders,” defined DS Thierry Bricaud, shedding mild on one of many early incidents of the day. “He modified bikes, he set off once more, however a kilometer later, he fell a second time. His day ended there.”
“Through the first hundred kilometers, there have been riders mendacity on the bottom in every single place,” mentioned Visma-Lease a Bike DS Maarten Wynants to HLN, confirming the carnage of the opening salvos.
Christian Scaroni and Diego Ulissi (XDS Astana) additionally crashed out however prevented fractures.
Movistar additionally noticed two of their leaders hit the deck, with Davide Formolo recovering from a heavy fall to complete 14th and Ruben Guerreiro crashing out however with none fractures.
Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) posted an image of his bloodied knee on Instagram, which required 5 stitches.
A number of riders arrived on the end line bloodied and bruised after battling away on the gravel roads, Pogačar amongst them, along with his left shoulder, elbow and leg all exhibiting indicators of his heavy impression.
After crashing, Francesco Busatto (Intermarché-Wanty) bravely rode with a bloodied face all the way in which to the Piazza del Campo to complete forty eighth.
Lotto’s Arjen Livyns additionally completed within the prime 50 in Siena with a facial wound which required stitches to his eyebrow.
Soudal-QuickStep’s Gianmarco Garofoli arrived residence in forty fifth with a very bloodied proper hand and a shredded equipment after crashing on the Monte Sante Marie sector.
Will probably be an version to recollect with Pogačar’s gorgeous comeback after crashing, nonetheless, the nineteenth males’s Strade Bianche may even go down as one of the brutal, with the dry gravel roads maybe resulting in extra crashes than normal.
