Remco Evenepoel is out of the Giro d’Italia after crashing on stage 17
Remco Evenepoel has pulled out of the Giro d’Italia after crashing on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Belgian went over a guardrail amid a pileup that sent multiple riders to the deck with around 25 km to go in stage 17. While he did ultimately remount and continue, he arrived at the finish with several bumps and bruises.
That’s how Remco Evenepoel finished today’s stage. #Giro pic.twitter.com/5HMHutxMbq
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) May 26, 2021
Post-stage evaluations did not turn up any fractures, but the team said that Evenepoel “suffered multiple skin lacerations and contusions of the second metacarpal of his left hand, caput radials, sacroiliacal joint, patella and of the 8th rib, as well as bilateral bursitis olecrani.”
With that in mind, Deceuninck-QuickStep staff decided to pull Evenepoel out of the race.
Evenepoel came into the race among the bookmakers’ top favorites for the pink jersey, albeit with big question marks about how well he would perform in his first race back since the crash at Il Lombardia last year that left him with a broken pelvis. He enjoyed a strong start to the Giro but struggled on stages 11 and 14 before dropping out of GC contention altogether on stage 16.
Heading into the second rest day, Evenepoel insisted that he was aiming to finish his debut Grand Tour, but plans changed after Wednesday’s crash.
“Of course it’s sad to leave the race, and my first Grand Tour too early, but in the end, it was a nice experience and I hope to be back one day again,” Evenepoel wrote on Twitter. “I’m wishing the best to all my Deceuninck – Quick-Step teammates.”
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