Following his unfortunate accident on Wednesday’s stage 17, it has been decided that the 21-year-old Belgian will leave the race.
During the stage in which he had looked strong and was riding with the group of main GC riders, Remco was involved in an incident that brought down several riders, both in front and behind him, on the descent of Passo di San Pelegrino, with 25 kilometers to go. He was able to finish the stage and was then examined by the team’s doctor. This examination has revealed there were no fractures, but he has 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.
Following the diagnosis, the medical team decided that it would be best if Remco was to leave the race and recover completely as fast as possible, before working towards his goals for later in the season.
Remco – who racked up three top 10 finishes in the first part of the race – was obviously disappointed with the outcome: “In the end it was a crash that shouldn’t have happened, I don’t know what really happened in front of me, but I came into the corner and saw some guys on the ground and I couldn’t pass on the right side because I was next to another guy, so I didn’t have any chances to avoid a crash. For now, there isn’t anything broken, but I have a lot of contusions, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to carry on with this pain. So I go back to Belgium and go for some CT scans. Then we will see.”
He reflected further on his first Grand Tour experience: “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 here one day again. I’m wishing the best to all my Deceuninck – Quick-Step teammates for the remaining stages.”
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
Remco Evenepoel 