One of the stars of the 2026 Giro d'Italia has had to make an early exit from the race, with Jhonatan Narváez abandoning on stage 19.
Narváez, who had won three stages and been in the running for the points classification until Thursday, dropped from the main peloton just 20km into Friday's 151km queen stage.
He pulled up alongside the UAE Team Emirates car and was in discussion with his team directors.
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Television footage showed that Narváez had a bloodied index finger on his right hand, though it is unclear how that injury was sustained. He had a plaster on another of his fingers.
Narváez’s abandon from the race was soon announced and confirmed over race radio.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG later explained that Narváez had gone down, not during Friday's queen stage, but on his way back to the bus after stage 18.
"Unfortunately, Jhonatan Narváez was forced to abandon in the early part of stage 19 at the Giro d'Italia," read a post from the team on X.
"Yesterday, the Ecuadorian suffered a small crash on the transfer back to the bus which left him in some discomfort on the challenging terrain today.
"He goes home with three stage wins in the back pocket and two stints in the ciclamino. Get well soon Jhony!"
A successful Giro
Narváez has lit up this Giro, winning the reduced bunch sprint into Cosenza on stage 4 and going on to score two triumphs from the breakaway, the first with a solo effort in the finale of stage 8, the second by out-sprinting Enric Mas at the end of stage 11.
Narváez’s success put him right in the mix for the points classification, and in recent days, he had been trading the ciclamino jersey with the Giro’s leading sprinter, Paul Magnier.
Narváez grabbed the jersey from the shoulders of the Frenchman after scoring points at the intermediate sprint on stage 14, and he repeated the trick to regain it again on stage 17.
However, despite the threat that Narváez could keep targeting the intermediates to win the competition outright, Magnier seemingly put the classification to bed with his stage victory on stage 18.
Narváez’s withdrawal leaves UAE Team Emirates-XRG with just four riders in the Giro, after several abandons earlier in the race. The team lost Jay Vine and Marc Soler on stage 2, then their GC leader, Adam Yates, on stage 3, having already seen their planned leader, João Almeida, unable to start the race.
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