Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin was forced to abandon the Giro d’Italia in the early kilometres of stage five, with the injuries sustained in yesterday’s crash proving too much for the 2017 winner to continue with the race.
Dumoulin said: “I came here for a three week adventure and I wanted to finish it, I’m not ready to go home. I went on the trainer this morning in my room and it was actually kind of ok, but when I stood up on the pedals my knee was really sore. I also tried it seated but that didn’t work either – I could spin the legs but not race.
“For me its terrible. Months and weeks of preparation and dedication went into this Giro and in one moment it’s over. It’s not how I wanted it to go of course, but it is how it is. I don’t know how bad the injury is, we only know that nothing is broken and it will probably just be swollen for a few days, but we have to see. For now I will just rest and see how it goes.”
