Sivakov crashes out of the Giro, Bernal now sole Ineos leader
Pavel Sivakov, who was one of two Ineos Grenadiers general classification contenders at the Giro d’Italia, will not start stage 6 of the race. Sivakov crashed with 15 km to go in stage 5, landing heavily on his right side and back. Unlike Mikel Landa, Sivakov was able to finish stage 5, albeit 13 minutes down in last place.
His team released a statement on social media in the hours after the stage with the bad news: Sivakov is out of the Giro with a shoulder injury.
“Unfortunately, Pavel Sivakov has been forced to withdraw from the Giro d’Italia after injuring his shoulder in a crash on today’s stage,” the post said. “All the best for a speedy recovery Pavel!”
Sivakov lost a small chunk of time in the race’s first GC test in stage 4, coming across the line in a small group 28 seconds back from the first GC riders.
What does this mean for Ineos?
Ineos came to this Giro to ride for two young leaders, and Sivakov’s withdrawal still leaves Egan Bernal to fight on towards Milan.
Bernal had a good ride in the Giro’s first mountain stage on Tuesday, accelerating to catch Mikel Landa and putting small time gaps between himself and a few key GC contenders.
“It was a good stage for us on Tuesday, the first tough climb of the Giro, so I can be very pleased with how I went,” Bernal said. “But tomorrow’s [Stage 6] stage has a very different kind of finish climb, it’s much longer for one thing. Tuesday’s ascent was short but very hard, and it was rainy and cold, so you shouldn’t draw too many conclusions.”
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