The opening stage of the 2022 Giro d’Italia went from promising to disaster for Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) who was sprinting in third position in the final meters of the finish at the Visegrád Citadel when he crossed wheels with the rider in front of him and crashed.
Ewan, 27, was the lone pure sprinter to survive the multitude of attacks on the 5.6 kilometer finishing climb and fighting for the stage win and first maglia rosa against eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert) when he ran his front wheel into the rear tire of the Eritrean and fell sprawling to the tarmac.
The Lotto Soudal rider stayed down for several moments before getting up and struggling across the finish line 1:04 down on the stage winner. His team stated on social media that Ewan was able to ride to the team bus and suffered abrasions and will undergo further examinations.
Ewan’s teammate, Belgian climber Harm Vanhoucke, also crashed in a separate incident with 6km to go on the opening stage.
More to follow…