UAE Team Emirates-XRG team principal Mauro Gianetti has detailed the road ahead for Tadej Pogačar as he begins his recovery from the crash that ended his Vuelta a España on Saturday.
The five-time Tour de France winner, who was dominating the Spanish Grand Tour, suffered a concussion, a displaced collarbone fracture and a cervical fracture in a crash on stage 8.
Pogačar has posted on Instagram since his accident, putting on a brave face from his hospital bed in Barcelona, where he remains this week as he awaits surgery. According to Gianetti, his collarbone can only be operated on when his concussions symptoms subside.
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"We must now wait for the concussion to go dow. Probably on Tuesday, if all goes well, he can have surgery on his collarbone," Gianetti said on the Bartoli Time show on the French radio station RMC Sport.
"The collarbone fracture is displaced so it will be a fairly big operation. It will be possible on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on his recovery from the concussion."
The rest of the season
Pogačar had been leading the only Grand Tour yet to be added to his glittering palmarès from the opening stage in his home region of Monaco, and had won 50% of the six completed stages.
His shot at Grand Tour history has now gone up in smoke and now, as the rest of the season goes, there is understandably major doubt.
"It's still quite early to say," Gianetti answered, when asked whether or not the reigning world champion would be able to line up in Montréal to defend his title at the end of September.
"We tried to avoid the discussion, because it's not the right time to make decisions. First of all, we have to see the recovery and how the operation goes on Tuesday or Wednesday. From there, we will have a slightly clearer framework to know if he has time to return for the end of the season or not.
"We will be able to approach this with a little more calmness and with Tadej who will have at least recovered from the concussion. It's not the time to make decisions with emotion; we'll have to wait a few days."
The end of the season includes not only the possibility to triple up on the road race world title he has won two years running, but also the opportunity to extend his record of five consecutive victories at the fifth and final Monument of the season, Il Lombardia.
Gianetti was quick to temper any expectation about Pogačar's potential appearance at the World Championships road race, in Montréal which is now less than a month away.
"Yes, the time is very short, he is still in the hospital, he has not been operated on. Of course, it doesn't seem easy to recover for the World Championship," Gianetti said.
"But hey, we'll see a little bit with the evolution in the next few days. The fracture of the collarbone is quite bad, because it requires a fairly serious operation and therefore it doesn't help."
Gianetti's fears for Pogačar
Gianetti also opened up on his fears for Pogačar following the dramatic crash on Saturday.
"I was very scared, because when you see the riders who have crashed, you know that the speeds are so high that every time they fall, they hurt themselves."
He went on to express relief at seeing the Slovenian get up and try to continue.
"When I saw that he got up and wanted to start racing again, I was a little relieved. I said to myself: 'Ok he's standing, he's walking and he wants to continue'. In the end it was clear that he couldn't. But we were scared."
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