Five years later, bad luck at Blockhaus brings Wilco Kelderman's GC ambitions to the ground

It had been a less than ideal preparation for the Giro d'Italia, however over the first week of racing Wilco Kelderman seemed in great form and ready to battle for the podium, which he obtained back in 2020. However his ambitions came down to the ground on stage nine as a series of issues before the final climb prevented him from giving it a try.

Whilst his teammate Jai Hindley won the stage, Kelderman rolled through the finish almost 11 minutes later, disappointed with how things turned out at Blockhaus. However, the problems starts before the final climb for the Dutchman :"In the descent before that, I broke my wheel. Those disc brakes got really hot and my spokes just popped from the pressure," he told in a post-race interview.

"Of course I would have preferred to be here in the front. It was a super fast descent. I had to change bikes twice and then I was already exhausted before the climb started. Then I knew it wasn't going to be anymore. I also had some back pain, so it wasn't my day," he added.

Kelderman is no stranger to bad luck, having many times suffered crashes and injuries at bad times. In this very same climb in 2017, he was involved in a crash alongside Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates to name a few when the GC group collided with a police motorbike, causing him to abandon with a broken finger. This was another episode in Kelderman's long bad luck history, however with BORA - hansgrohe very much within fight for the top places with Hindley and Emanuel Buchmann, he will now be a very important domestique.

He's hoping to recover over today's rest day, and begin a second chapter in the race where his ambitions are substantially different. It just sucks. Physically it's okay now, but I do have some pains. It was a short day to get to a good level. Then people quickly think I'm okay. But now it's just beginning. I'm happy that Jai won and that the team is in good shape," he added.

He's admitted that stage hunting is likely to become a goal in the coming weeks aswell, with an obvious priority in the many mountain stages that are to come. "But the Giro is not over yet. Maybe I can still go for a stage win. The preparation was just not good. You hope it's good enough, but you know it's going to be hard. That's too bad. You always go to the hole, but sometimes there is no more. It is also a fair sport," he concluded.