Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) has pointed the finger at Trek-Segafredo for causing his second crash, close to the finish, on yesterday's stage 5 at Giro d'Italia. However, the world champion said such things happen in bike racing.
His team's medic, Dr Toon Cruyt, and team boss, Patrick Lefevere, have expressed concern for his condition as he was in a lot of pain. Evenepoel himself confirmed his injuries were painful. But speaking to reporters in Naples this morning ahead of stage 6, he said he hoped for the best for today and then the much harder stage tomorrow.
Asked if he was ready for tomorrow's summit finish on cat 1 Gran Sasso, Evenepoel said: "I just hope I don't have a bad day because last year in the Vuelta after two days I had a bad day. So we'll see. I think it's good that today is a hard day, that my legs will be will be pushing, will be turning. So, yeah, first today and then tomorrow."
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He said it was "not nice" that he had crashed twice and was in pain so early in the race. "I have some some pain in the back, some big bruises I have, like, a big black spot on my back, which is some blood. So yeah, it's life, that's bike racing.
"But we have to deal with it and just try to to handle the pain as good as possible. I have to try to relax as much as possible, because I think I need a lot of energy now to heal from the wounds. But until now everything feels pretty good, so I'm happy with the feeling."
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The second crash yesterday appears to have impacted Evenepoel more than the first. He was seen on the TV coverage looking to his left just inside the 3km to go marker - when time loss from racing incidents does not result in general classification time loss.
As he looked left, he drifted to his right and he bumped off an overtaking Trek-Segafredo rider. While he did not crash immediately, he never regained his balance and fell to the ground a moment later. Evenepoel said he was drifting back deliberately at that point as he knew he was safe from any time loss. He added he was also trying to give some space to the Arkéa Samsic riders, as they were setting up David Dekker for the final sprint.
"We made our first finish line at, like, 8 kilometres to go and we went into those chicanes… we actually went through them perfectly. Then Mattia (Cattaneo) and Balero (Davide Ballerini), they kept me pretty well in the front til 3km to go. And then, yeah, 3ks to go is for me a sign to drop back.
"So I'm dropping back and the guys of Arkéa asked me to give them some space. So I opened a bit and then the guys from Trek came around and they just took me. Yeah, that's life, it can happen."
