Tom Dumoulin’s bid to win a second Giro d’Italia appears to be over after the Team Sunweb leader was involved in a heavy crash on stage 4.
The GC contender suffered major cuts and bruises to both knees after hitting the deck six kilometres out, and although he was able to finish the stage, he lost ground on overall leader Primoz Roglic.
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Dumoulin is now back in 56th, 4 minutes and 30 seconds behind the pink jersey, and even if he is passed fit to carry on into stage 5, the Dutchman believes his chances of winning the Giro are over. “I’m going to sleep on it overnight and then I’ll decide tomorrow,” Dumoulin said to reporters after getting a check-up that cleared him of any broken bones. “The rankings [GC] are over.” Later in a team press release, Dumoulin explained how the crash had happened. “[Salvatore] Puccio crashed, I think he touched a wheel or something and he took me and [Ion] Izagirre down with him,” he said. “I was in the front of the bunch and just couldn’t avoid it.
There are no fractures which is good but my knee is very swollen.
I wasn’t able to push any power in the last few kilometres so I don’t know how I will be tomorrow.”
