Giro d'Italia crash-athon strikes again in stage two
Uruguayan Thomas Silva takes the victory and the pink jersey
First the news, then the major story.
XDS-Astana's Thomas Silva won stage two of the Giro d'Italia in a reduced bunch sprint. The Uruguayan timed his sprint to perfection, winning by half a wheel over Florian Stork (Tudor) followed by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).
Nice work Thomas. First place, a gorgeous maglia rosa and a nice bit of history — he’s now the first rider from South America to win a grand tour stage. This was a dream day — and I’m guessing he’s down for some Italian Prosecco tonight.
Now the bigger, more dramatic story. Here are the top ten most dangerous occupations in the United States — and we’re guessing it’s about the same in Italy, and yeah, Bulgaria, where the race today took place.
Logging workers
Fishers and related fishing workers
Roofers
Refuse and recyclable material collectors
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
Helpers in construction trades
Structural iron and steel workers
Drivers and truck-related transportation jobs
Firefighters or firefighting supervisors
Electrical power-line installers and repairers
What’s kinda incredible about this list is that “Professional Cyclist” didn’t make the cut. But if you viewed the massive and scary crashes that occurred at the 23 kilometer mark, you’d want to have a serious chat with whoever put that list together.
The roads were wet and in my humble opinion slippery with dirt. Usually a grand tour does a better job of cleaning up the roads. However, there was nothing particularly technical almost the slight, gradual bend in the road.
Yet all of a sudden a massive crash threw riders into the air, pinwheeling thru space and knocking down scores of other riders. The most sickening scene was at least three riders who appeared to slam their heads against the metal guardrail — and several other riders who went over the barrier into wet mud and grass. It was awful.
Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ended up strapped to a gurney and carried to an ambulance. I’m assuming it was the same story for Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility). Both out of the race.
\The crash victims who were able to remount and continue are basically out of the GC battle. Pre-race contender Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) lost more than 10 minutes. I’ve never seen a rider with his entire face brown with mud and red with blood. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) lost significant time.
The most insane thing is, it could have been far worse. The fact that nobody was paralyzed is some kind of half miracle. This could have been a very dark day in the Giro.
Pro cycling is a brutal, dangerous sport and the accidents can happen in an instant, anywhere on the course, often through no fault of your own. A rider in front slides out, clips a wheel, overcooks a corner, takes a stupid risk and suddenly your collarbone is broken in three places and you’ve lost three months of hard training.
What’s also interesting about the top ten most dangerous jobs are the reasons why. Here’s the stated explanation — and I’ve highlighted all the ones that apply to pro cycling. “The biggest risks are falls, transportation incidents, being struck by equipment or objects, and working around heavy machinery. Jobs that involve heights, remote locations, roads, or unstable materials.”
So falls, transport, being stuck by objects, working around heavy machinery i.e. those massive race motos. Then you’ve got the high heights of the mountains and crazy descents in remote locations. Pro Cycling has it ALL when it comes to danger.
Now back to the happy part. Because it’s a race and the winner is always happy. “I’m delighted. This is only the second stage of my first Giro d’Italia, and I’m the winner,” said Thomas Silva. ‘It was a bit unexpected. I’m speechless.”
Speechless was also how I felt when all those riders hit the guardrails. Let’s hope tomorrow is high on sporting drama and very low on danger.