Big blow for Bernal and Ineos Grenadiers as Sivakov withdraws from Giro

Ineos Grenadiers, especially Egan Bernal, has suffered a set-back at the Giro d’Italia after Pavel Sivakov was forced out of the race following stage 5.

The young Russian rider crashed in the closing stages
today. He remounted and limped to the finish in Cattolica after
177km of racing. And Ineos Grenadiers said after the stage that he was being
withdrawn due to the injuries sustained in the crash with 18^th to go.

"Unfortunately, Pavel Sivakov has been forced to withdraw from the Giro d'Italia after injuring his shoulder in a crash on today's stage. All the best for a speedy recovery Pavel," Ineos Grenadiers said on social media this evening.

Sivakov’s crash today, in an incident
where he was the only faller after being squeezed into the side of the road, is
the second time in as many seasons that a Grand Tour has been ruined for him by
an early crash.

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He came down hard on stage 1 on his Tour de France debut last year and while he finished the race his injuries greatly undermined his performance and ended his season.

 Sivakov,
who won the Baby Giro in 2017 and was 9^th in the Giro on his debut
two years later, had gone into this year’s race as co-leader of the team with
Egan Bernal. But after losing 13:08 today his general classification
aspirations were over.

However, he would have made a useful domestique for Bernal if he had managed to recover in coming days. That ‘Plan B’ is now wiped out and Bernal, who has looked comfortable so far, has lost a very valuable ally as he bids for Giro victory.