Giro d'Italia GC favourite Jonas Vingegaard has lost key Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wilco Kelderman, with the experienced Dutch climber and domestique forced to abandon the race before stage 4.
Kelderman went down hard in the high-speed crash during stage 2 in Bulgaria. He managed to finish the stage and stage 3 to Sofia but has not recovered from his injuries as the Corsa Rosa resumes in the south of Italy.
"Unfortunately, Wilco Kelderman will not start stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia following his crash a couple of days ago, as he is still experiencing lingering effects from the crash," the Visma-Lease a Bike team announced via social media as the team travelled to the start of stage 4 in Catanzaro.
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Kelderman is the first loss for Visma-Lease a Bike after they mostly avoided the mass crash on stage 2.
He was seen as a key support rider for Vingegaard and his attempt at overall victory at the Giro. Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli now face extra work in the key mountain stages of the race.
The 35-year old Dutchman was riding his 20th Grand Tour. He finished third overall in the 2020 Giro d'Italia.
Eight of the 184 starters have now to abandon the Giro due to crashes and injury according to our abandon tracker page, with Kelderman joining the seven already out over the first three days.
Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were all injured in the stage 2 crash.
GC contender Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Andrea Vendrame (Jayco AlUla) also had to leave the race after the stage due to their injuries.
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