Tao forced to abandon Giro as Thomas retains lead

17 May 2023

Tao forced to abandon Giro as Thomas retains lead

Giro d'Italia - Stage 11 » Camaiore › Tortona, 219km

Tao Geoghegan Hart was sadly forced to abandon the Giro d'Italia following a crash on the 11th stage of the Grand Tour.

The Brit had been lying in third place overall heading into the stage, which saw a slick left-hander cause a number of rider to crash on the descent off the Colla di Boasi.

The top three on the general classification were all brought down, with Geoghegan Hart coming off worse. The Grenadier was forced to leave the race after a brilliant start, heading away in an ambulance for further checks at a local hospital in Genoa.

After further assessment, imaging confirmed that Tao had sustained a fracture of the left hip which will require surgery. The whole team wish him a speedy recovery.

Thomas was able to continue without major injuries and finished safely to retain his two-second lead over Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), who also went down in the crash heading into the final 70km.

Pavel Sivakov was another rider involved. He was able to remount and crossed the line with time loss and visible cuts. He will be monitored by the team's medical staff ahead of Thursday's stage 12.
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Reaction

- Geraint Thomas

"I don’t really know exactly [what happened]. A UAE guy was next to me. He went down first and luckily for me I just landed on him. Then behind it was chaos. Obviously Tao was hurt and didn’t get up and went to hospital. Pavel also knocked himself about a bit. Roglic also, I saw him at the finish, and he had a fleshy cut on his hip. Hopefully they’re all okay.
 
"I think it’s just the Giro – so much happens all the time, with the wet roads as well. It’s a big big loss for us but we try to focus straight away and focus on the rest of the race. As you saw at the end there was another big crash and I was lucky to avoid that as well. It’s the race that keeps on giving."