Disaster year for Soren Kragh Andersen - Fractured wrist for Lidl-Trek rider 12 days after late start to the season

Stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia had all the makings of a relatively quiet day's racing, but it certainly wasn't the case. An almost 100% flat day, a one-man breakaway that was always at a controlled distance and even a small attempt at echelons by Bahrain - Victorious after the Red Bull kilometers ended up falling apart due to a lack of cooperation from other teams. The finale then saw several crashes including that of Soren Kragh Andersen.

However, stage 4 was not incident-free, with a collective crash that took down 15 members of the peloton and led to the abandonment of Nickolas Zukowsky of the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. 

Towards the end, with the trains picking up speed and tension rising within the peloton, there was another crash that cut off the Lidl-Trek train and left Mads Pedersen badly positioned in the final kilometers of the stage. At the time it was possible to see Soren Kragh Andersen's violent fall, but the Dane crossed the finish line, giving indications that he might try to resist the injuries he suffered. Today we have confirmation from an official Lidl-Trek source that the 30-year-old Dane has abandoned the race.

Mads Pedersen is thus deprived of one of his most important teammates, a specialist in flat terrain who is fundamental to the positioning of the current leader of the Giro within the peloton. Pedersen will continue to fight to defend his pink jersey for a few more days and to win the Maglia Ciclamino at the end of the race.

Andersen hence continues to have a season marked by bad luck, taking into consideration that his first race of the year was only at Eschborn-Frankfurt on the 1st of May. Despite having only one race day he was selected to the Giro, but after four stages he is now having to go back to recovering from an injury.