Roglic and Aussie hope Storer crash at Giro d'Italia

West Australian

18-05-2025

Australia's roller-coaster Giro d'Italia adventure has taken a turn for the worse after Michael Storer, their top hope for overall success, suffered a crash on a tough, dusty day that may have severely dented his hopes of grand tour success.
Storer hit the deck with about 50km to go on the 181km ninth stage from Gubbio to Siena, that included some of the demanding white, gravel roads of Tuscany which are a feature of the region's famous Strade Bianche one-day race.
The Tudor Pro leader remounted and battled home in 25th place, but he was nearly two-and-a-half minutes behind the stage winner, Wout van Aert, and dropped from sixth place overall to 11th, now three minutes and three seconds behind the surprise new young owner of the maglia rosa leader's jersey, Isaac del Toro.
It was the latest drama to envelop an Australian rider after Jai Hindley's early abandonment and Kaden Groves' stage win, both on Thursday, and Luke Plapp's fantastic victory on Saturday.
The 21-year-old del Toro, only supposed to be a support rider for UAE Team Emirates, became the first Mexican cyclist ever to lead the race even though he was beaten on the line for the stage win by van Aert after a terrific duel.
But the bigger dramas had also erupted behind as not just Storer, but other major contenders - headed by race favourite Primoz Roglic - suffered crashes.
In the five-time Grand Tour winner's case, Roglic not only tumbled on the second of the five gravel sectors amid the dust and grit being kicked up by the cyclists, but he also suffered a puncture soon afterwards and had to change bikes.
Roglic ended up finishing 2:22 on the day and has dropped from second overall to 10th, 2:25 behind the leader but, more significantly, 1:12 behind the man considered his main challenger for the crown, Spain's Juan Ayuso, who's lying second overall behind his UAE lieutenant del Toro.
"We take it, we finish it and I have to see what to do next," said the imperturbable Roglic. "We will see. I mean, we'll see at the end what that means."
After the crash chaos which also caught up luminaries like Tom Pidcock and Brandon McNulty, there was only delight for van Aert, one of the stars of the sport, as he enjoyed his first win of the season, a redemptive ride after an injury-hit 2024 campaign and an unconvincing start to 2025.
It was the 30-year-old's first stage win on his Giro debut to go with his nine stage wins at the Tour de France and three at the Spanish Vuelta.
"It's easy to say this victory means a lot to me, I almost cannot explain it," the emotional Belgian said.
"It had to be here I believe because this place is where my road career started back in 2018 and to win this stage after a long period without delivering, finally again, it feels so good."
Monday is the race's second rest day before a 28.6km individual time trial from Lucca to Pisa when Roglic will be fancied to claw back time.
With agencies