Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe on 'gut-wrenching' Tao Geoghegan Hart exit from Giro d’Italia following crash
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Published 17/05/2023 at 17:36 GMT
Former champion Tao Geoghegan Hart is out of the Giro d’Italia after the three key players in the general classification went down in a freak crash. Although Geraint Thomas, in the leader’s pink jersey, and Primoz Roglic swiftly returned to action, Geoghegan Hart was unable to continue and was stretchered into an ambulance. Geoghegan Hart was five seconds adrift of Thomas on GC ahead of the stage.
'Big loss' - Thomas on Geoghegan Hart exit after freak crash
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) was left ruing a “big loss” at the Giro d’Italia after team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart left the race in an ambulance, while regular Ineos road captain Luke Rowe called it “gut-wrenching” on The Breakaway.
Thomas and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) also went down in the crash with 68km remaining on Stage 11 when Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) slid out on a wet turn and took a number of riders with him. Although Thomas and Roglic resumed, Geoghegan Hart was not so fortunate and was placed on a stretcher.
A third Ineos rider, Pavel Sivakov, was also wounded in the crash and came across the finish line almost 14 minutes down on winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe).
Thomas opened up about the crash to Eurosport after coming home in the main bunch to keep the maglia rosa. The Welshman leads Roglic by two seconds on GC.
“A UAE guy [Covi] was next to me and he went down first. Luckily for me, I just landed on him,” Thomas said.
“And then behind it was chaos and obviously Tao was badly hurt. Pavel also knocked himself about a bit and I saw Roglic at the finish and he had quite a fleshy cut on his hip. Hopefully they are all OK.
On Tao’s exit, he continued: “It’s a big loss for us. We tried to focus straight away… as you saw at the end, there was another big crash and I was lucky to avoid that.
“It’s certainly a blow to lose Tao. It obviously changes our tactics slightly when it comes to the big mountain days, but we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it. We’re definitely taking each day as it comes because as we’ve seen in the last few days it’s never straightforward.”
Geoghegan Hart is the latest big name to depart the Giro in the past three days after Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) was ruled out with Covid, while Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora–hansgrohe) withdrew on Tuesday through illness.
He is the second Ineos rider to depart the Giro after Filippo Ganna abandoned due to Covid, a virus that has also rocked Soudal Quick-Step as four more riders withdrew ahead of Stage 11.
'Gut-wrenching' – Rowe on Tao crash
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Ineos still 'strongest team' despite 'gut-wrenching' Geoghegan Hart exit - Rowe
Rowe, who is not competing at the Giro, dialled into The Breakaway to discuss his team’s fortunes after a turbulent day.
“It’s gut wrenching. You’ve got a guy who has sacrificed a lot of time and effort over the past few months to get in the form of his life,” said Rowe.
“What would have been in the next two weeks we will never know. But certainly we would have seen him fighting alongside G, Roglic and a few others to try and win the Giro for a second time. Hard to watch.
“Two guys down, it’s obviously massive. And not just any two guys. We’ve lost Filippo Ganna, the man needs no introduction, and Tao, who’s joint with G as top GC man. So two massive losses. But we’re not the only team who have lost someone here, let’s keep it in perspective. I think you’ve just got to rally together and it often makes you stronger as a team.
"OK we’ve lost a guy, we’ve lost another guy, 'boys we’ve still got the pink jersey', there are lots of teams in a worst situation than us. You look at Quick-Step three-four days ago, they were on top of the world with the pink jersey and a full squad. And now they’ve lost the pink jersey, lost Remco, and they are at the sign-in this morning with three guys.
"It’s such an unpredictable and brutal sport, but in particular this race. They’ve just got to rally round, we’ve still got three-quarters of the team who in my eyes have been absolutely incredible. They’ve ridden brilliantly and despite losing two men, I still see them as the strongest team.”
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