Hindley fractures a vertebrae, and Roglic is left without his main domestique - "Nevertheless, we still have six good riders who can support Primoz"

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe had a hellish day this Thursday, losing three riders to injury due to a massive crash at the Tour de Hongrie, and then having Jai Hindley withdrawing from the Giro d'Italia during it's own large fall. The Australian confirmed himself that besides a concussion he also suffered a fractured vertebrae in the lower back, which will leave Primoz Roglic more vulnerable in the mountains.

"You're right, this changes things. I think we cannot hide this. Jai played a major role in our strategy, and we don't have him anymore now," team DS Christian Pömer told Cyclingnews. "Nevertheless, we still have six good riders who can support Primoz, also Martínez is a former podium rider in the Giro, and I will have to look day by day at what is possible".

With UAE Team Emirates' maintaining it's strong block in the mountains, this can certainly come to bite back the German team later on in the race. "Generally, I think the approach stays the same, but we maybe have to just, instead of trying to win one stage or the other, save our energy and focus only on the GC."

Today's stage into Tagliacozzo will be the first day in the mountains and action is expected in the summit finish. "I think tomorrow it doesn't play a major role, it's a relatively easy summit finish, where only seconds will be in the game,"  However for later in the race, specially from stage 15 onwards, this can play a big role as UAE have the chance to put a lot of pressure on a BORA that doesn't seem to be on the same level at the time being. 

"Basically, for tomorrow, it doesn't matter; it's more for the Alps, where we're really going to miss Jai. I think we will see this day by day. It's still a long way to the real high mountains, and it's for sure not the last crash that will happen along the way," he warns.

Hindley has suffered a vertebrae fracture that was only diagnosed at the hospital, but his withdrawal looked clear as he sat in the roadside with a concussion. "I'm not a doctor. He was able to communicate, but as I said, the doctor said there was no chance to keep going, and you don't have to be a medical expert to see that this was the right decision."