"At least the struggle makes sense now": Examination reveals Erlend Blikra had been riding Giro with FOUR back fractures

Erlend Blikra started the 2026 Giro d'Italia as one of the many sprinter outsiders looking to upset favourites Jonathan Milan and Paul Magnier, but his race had quickly gone sideways during the opening stage finale in Burgas.

The narrow finish in Bulgarian city caused a massive pile-up with multiple top sprinters caught up, including Blikra, who had crossed the finish line last - alongside Matteo Moschetti who had not started the following day. Blikra himself was badly beat up, but opted to continue in the race with eyes set on future sprint opportunities.

And the Norwegian speedster held his ground quite well, finishing 6th in Bulgaria's another sprint finish in Sofia, and came close to another top-10 in crash-mared Napoli finish.

But other than that, Blikra suffered enormously on every climbing day to even reach the finish line, let alone in the time limit. That lasted until stage 11's fast-paced hilly stage to Chiavari where Blikra lost contact with peloton very early into the stage, and despite a help from his teammates, he missed the time cut by one minute. A moment of anger, but also relief.

Throughout the race, Blikra would have complained about a back pain, dating back to the fateful stage 1 crash. But it's taken quite a while for us to learn that Blikra has been riding around Italy with four (!) fractures in his body:

"Examinations after my crash in the first stage of the Giro d’Italia have revealed three fractures in my lower back and a broken rib," he said in an Instagram post.

"Not the answer I was hoping for, but at least the struggle now makes sense," Blikra continued. "The focus is now on recovery. That means no racing for a while, but I will do everything I can to be back as soon as possible," added the fast man from Uno-X Mobility.

At the moment, Blikra is scheduled to start the Vuelta a Espana towards the end of the summer, once again as Uno-X's designated man for bunch finishes. His scheduled leading towards that appointment is not known for the moment, but for now it's clear that recovery will take priority.