Geraint Thomas is out of the Giro d'Italia having been withdrawn by his Ineos Grenadiers team before the start of stage 4 when further X-rays showed he had fractured his pelvis.
On Monday evening the team said the initial X-rays had revealed no broken bones from his stage 3 crash, but it was awaiting the results of further checks to confirm that status.
However, now the results of those additional X-rays have been made available to the team and they show the Welsh rider had fractured his pelvis in what was a nasty crash as this fan's video shows.
It means the 35-year-old, who crashed in the neutralised zone of yesterday's stage, rode the full race - 150km finishing atop Mount Etna - with a fractured pelvis.
Related News
Dr Phil Riley of Ineos Grenadiers said: “Geraint had an MRI and a CT scan this morning which revealed a small undisplaced fracture in the lower part of the pelvis which wasn’t picked up on the X-rays yesterday.
Advertisement
"As a precaution he will be withdrawn from the race as it's an injury that could easily be aggravated.”
Geraint Thomas said he was very disappointed to be leaving the race, which he went into as one of the favourites and with a point to prove having been dropped by Ineos Grenadiers for the Tour de France.
“It’s so frustrating. I’d put so much work in to this race. I did everything I could and feel like I was in just as good, if not better shape, than when I won the Tour. I was feeling really good. So for it just to end like this is gutting," he said.
“I was really up for starting today. I woke up and wanted to start with the boys and at least help them go for stages over the next few days, but deep down I knew something wasn’t right, so we went to get these extra scans. It does make the decision easier when there’s a fracture in some ways, because obviously I don’t want to do anymore damage.”
Topics
