Giro stage 2 temporarily neutralised after mass crash with 23km to go

Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia to Veliko Tarnovo was briefly neutralised following a mass crash with 23km remaining that saw 30 or so riders come down.

Adam Yates, Derek Gee-West and Santiago Buitrago were among the fallers in the crash, which took place on a downhill section on roads made treacherous by steady rain.

The first fallers appeared to be from the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, who were positioned near the head of the peloton, and their team leader Yates was among the worst affected in the crash as well as teammate Jay Vine, who was forced to abandon. Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility) also abandoned after receiving a concussion check on the roadside.

The peloton slowed in response to the crash, and it was quickly decided to neutralise the race as all of the ambulances on the Giro were occupied treating the fallen riders. 

The race would resume again with 18km remaining, just in time for the sprint at Lyaskovets, where Egan Bernal would pick up the maximum bonus seconds. 

The long list of fallers included Corbin Strong (NSN), Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious), Dries Van Gestel (Soudal Quick-Step), Mattias Bais (Polti), Wilco Kelderman (Visma Lease a Bike), Filippo Turconi (Bardiani CSF), Dion Smith (NSN), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Andrea Vendrame (Jayco-AlUla) and Sean Flynn (Picnic-PostNL-Raisin).

The race resumed before all the affected riders had returned to the peloton following the crash, and it ignited on the following climb of Lyaskovets. 

Gee-West, who had chased back on after the crash, was among those distanced, while, Adam Yates, who had never returned to the peloton, would lose more than nine minutes by day's end.