He was the crown favorite of the 2019 Giro d'Italia, 2017 Tour winner and 2018 runner-up Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb, who has to retire early from the 2019 race. This year's Giro is already plagued by crashes, now it hits one of the victory contenders.
The fourth stage should bring him no luck, in a mass crash he comes to fall and lands in the ditch. The result: a bleeding knee and a 4-minute deficit at the finish. The 28-year-old Dutchman still tried to tackle the 5th stage, but shortly afterwards had to throw in the towel, the knee hurt too much.
Dumoulin said:
"I came here for a three-week adventure and I wanted to finish it, I'm not ready to go home. I went to the trainer in my room this morning and it was actually okay, but when I was on the pedals my knee really hurt. I also tried sitting down, but that didn't work either - I could turn my legs, but I couldn't run.
"For me it's terrible. Months and weeks of preparation and commitment went into this Giro and in a moment it's over. It's not how I wanted it, of course, but that's how it is. I don't know how severe the injury is, we just know that nothing is broken and it will probably only be swollen for a few days, but we'll have to see. Right now I'm just going to rest and see how it goes."
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