"A guy that has had a long string of pretty big crashes" - Magnus Sheffield hits the deck again to scupper positive ITT at the Giro d'Italia

Magnus Sheffield was looking good to at least match his 3rd placed finish in the opening individual time-trial of the 2024 Giro d'Italia on stage 14's battle against the clock into Desenzano del Garda. Sadly though, after starting brightly the American pushed a little too hard and crashed. 

Although he was able to quickly remount his bike, his hopes of a positive placing on the stage were scuppered and his skinsuit was visibly torn on the side he had fallen with cuts and bruises already showing themselves on Sheffield's right hip. The 22-year-old's INEOS Grenadiers teammate, Luke Rowe was watching and commentating on the action for Eurosport and he didn't like what he saw.

"To be honest, that is really hard to take, really hard to see that," the Welshman spoke on the incident at the time. Given Sheffield's long history of crashes, seeing his teammate hit the deck once again was not something Rowe enjoyed watching at all.  "He is just a guy that has had a long string of pretty big crashes now."

"I just feel for him on a personal level because that is going to completely knock him and his confidence for the rest of the Giro," the soon-to-be retiring Welshman continued. "He had a bad string of crashes prior to the Giro, but actually, this race itself he has been really good. I think that might have been his first crash this Giro. But you can see he has done a lot of damage to himself there, and to his elbow, which he is putting a lot of weight on - it is hidden, but that looked pretty bloodied as well."

Rowe's co-commentator, Adam Blythe also shared concern for Sheffield, who is viewed within the INEOS Grenadiers team as someone with a very high ceiling of potential. "Yeah, that is a tough one to see, that. All of that skin is off on the right-hand side," Blythe added. "The only good thing is that he is a rider who crashes a lot, so he will be used to the pain. He is a rider who does crash a lot. At least he has not broken anything and he is on his bike."