Dreams fulfilled but disasters poorly handled in Bulgaria – Philippa York's Giro d'Italia analysis

The Giro d’Italia is no stranger to a bit of drama, sometimes of an exciting nature and at others excruciatingly painful. The Grande Partenza in Bulgaria has lived up to those expectations by serving up a hint of the former and sadly a large dose of the latter.

For those who are drawn to random statistics, Thomas Silva being the first ever Uruguayan to win a Grand Tour stage will be a delight, and he's their first ever Grand Tour race leader, too. XDS Astana have to be considering when the current Maglia Rosa wearer will be the first ever Uruguayan at the Tour de France. Unlikely this year but I’m sure ASO, the Tour organisers, will have already noted him as more proof of the 'mondialisation du cyclisme'. Uruguay could well be a new market opportunity in the same way that Colombia brought some fresh faces to a gloomy European scene.

Save for the final stage to Sofia, the Bulgarian adventure hasn’t been the glorious advertisement that the tourist board would have been hoping for. Mist and drizzle for the opening day and properly cold conditions the next certainly dampened down any enthusiasm from the majority of the peloton, and that’s before the topic of crashes reared its ugly head.

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Incidents are to be expected in the initial stages, especially when it’s a bunch sprint and everyone is fresh at the end of a none-too-challenging route, so the mass pile-up caused by a barrier foot/rear wheel interaction at 600 metres from the line on stage 1 wasn’t a huge surprise. Thankfully those who visited the tarmac were all able to finish, with only Matteo Moschetti pulling out overnight.

However, the following day’s wipe-out came with longer term consequences which will influence not only the racing, but bring into question the decision-making of the organisation and officials who are overseeing proceedings.

Safety has become a growing concern as road furniture has increased and infrastructure has restricted traffic flow through towns and villages. Rightly so, given the investments made by teams and their backers, but the balance of those exposed to the dangers of the race with the commercial interests of sponsors – be they local or major stakeholders – is a difficult one to manage. That became very apparent on the second stage, 23km from the end.

With so many riders involved in the crash that occurred on stage 2, the majority, if not all, of the medical support was taken up helping those affected. The unaffected riders then did the right thing and slowed, worried for their colleagues and also aware they were now vulnerable to another incident which applied not just to them but the cars and motorcycles who had come through the carnage. That is why racing is allowed to be neutralised in those circumstances. Safety, primarily, as there is not an adequate emergency response; fairness, because it’s an unexpected incident; and basic human respect for those directly impacted.

In the official communiqué, the claim was that the race was neutralised for 4km and then restarted when a sufficient number of ambulances had made contact with the peloton. The reality was otherwise.

The crash occurred with precisely 23.2km remaining, the announcement of 'race neutralised' came at 20km to go and then the race director waved his little flag to restart racing as 18km to go appeared on screen. There were no ambulances in sight, half the team cars were missing and riders were still trying to come back, many of them with blood still spilling from wounds suffered in the crash.

Recommencing in those circumstances was highly questionable and ignored the concerns that had been communicated by the likes of Filippo Ginna, Ben O’Connor and Jonas Vingegaard. Jasper Stuyven describing the race direction as akin to a frightened dog says everything about the panic. Maybe they realisation that the Red Bull Kilometre and the potentially decisive climb of Lyaskovets Monastery Pass in a few kilometres weren’t going to happen and thinking that a neutralised affair between the main protagonists wasn’t going to be a good look had some influence.

Whatever the reason, however, it was no excuse. Egan Bernal taking the bonus seconds won’t be a thing in the last week and Jonas Vingegaard saying that his attacking on the climb was to keep himself safe for the windy descent signalled his reaction to being placed in danger again.

Pro bike riders understand the risks and they try to minimise them – all they ask in return is that the race organisation makes good decisions and safe choices. Restarting the race when there were people still on the ground or being medically evacuated, their status unknown, was poor, very poor.

Back to the racing itself

Moving onto the competition and my initial impressions from three days of racing in Bulgaria, crashes aside.

Paul Magnier has definitely stepped up a level, much to the detriment of the home favourite Jonathan Milan. The big Italian lost his leadout and ended up too far back as the sprint was launched on the opening stage, so then tried to impose his turn of speed from quite far out in Sofia but still Magnier came past. A rethink of the Lidl-Trek plan might be the next move for them.

Dylan Groenewegen is going to be a factor too in the sprints to come, backed up with the full confidence of a Unibet Rose Rockets squad not afraid to take on the WorldTour teams. For the moment though, Soudal-QuickStep are basking in the glory of a perfect start.

At the other end of the scale are UAE Team Emirates-XRG, three riders down, Adam Yates out and their GC hopes now on the shoulders of Jan Christen in his first three-week race. Disaster. It’ll be a big ask up against Jonas Vingegaard who is in really good shape and, as expected, ever attentive. If he had been able to resist the return of Giulio Pellizzari and Lennert Van Eetvelt in the final of stage 2 I suspect he would have soloed to the finish with a 20- or 30-second lead. As it is, a warning was given to the other contenders of what is to come.

The Netcompany Ineos duo of Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman seem to be riding smartly, staying out of trouble and well protected, so I expect they’ll be more than happy to make it back to Italian shores where the more serious GC battles will happen.

I was surprised too that Ben O’Connor and Felix Gall survived Bulgaria without any hiccups or time losses, and that in the group disputing the sprint in Veliko Tarnovo, it was Movistar who had the four riders – more than anyone else. That makes a refreshing change from having to chase after being on the wrong side of the splits.

The King of the Mountains competition has Polti VisitMalta all over it for the moment, but you have to wonder how long Diego Sevilla can sustain going on the attack from the gun and mopping up the points on offer each day. It’s a hard way to function if he wants to make it to Rome in three weeks' time. So far he has done 499km out front and there’s only been 543 on the menu. Lots of television time for that black Aurum bike with the gold decals and finishing touches, though.

However, heading into the first rest day and the return to Italy, XDS Astana lead the standings and Uruguay have a new sporting star with the dreams of Thomas Silva being fulfilled. Their men's football World Cup campaign starts two weeks after the conclusion of the Giro, but there’s plenty of time to find out how far their top cyclist can go and if the inspiration for his preferred name is anything to do with Geraint, Voeckler or Dumoulin.

Who will challenge Jonas Vingegaard at this year's Giro d'Italia? Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of the Corsa Rosa. Enjoy unrivalled reporting from our team of journalists on the ground, including breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage as it happens, plus access to the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.