The Giro d'Italia has not exactly gone the way Team Jumbo-Visma might have wished: their general classification hopeful Tom Dumoulin is out of contention after the first summit finish on Mount Etna and, after stage 5 in Messina, Sam Oomen suffered a hard fall in a freak incident.
The Dutchman was pedaling to the team bus after the Giro stage and graciously handed one of his bidons to an individual among the tifosi. However, as he reached across his body to hand the bottle over to the man on his left, the man's musette string caught on his handlebars and sent Oomen crashing to the ground.
The Jumbo-Visma team later announced on social media that Oomen "seems to be doing OK" following the incident.
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Oomen was a key climbing domestique for Dumoulin in the Giro d'Italia in 2018 when the pair were with Team Sunweb. Dumoulin finished second that year and Oomen ninth. They were reunited at Jumbo-Visma in 2021.
The crash following the 192-kilometre stage 5 from Catania to Messina evoked memories of Lance Armstrong being taken down on the final climb of Luz-Ardiden during the Tour de France in 2003 by a spectator's musette. Armstrong got up and finished the stage and won the Tour. He later lost that title when he was banned for life for doping.
