“Poor, very poor” - British cycling icon condemns Giro d’Italia restart after horror crash left riders still awaiting medical help

Philippa York has delivered a damning verdict on the handling of the Giro d’Italia’s Stage 2 neutralisation, arguing that the race was restarted while riders were still recovering from a major crash and medical resources were still stretched.

The British cycling icon, writing in her latest column for Cycling News, focused not only on the crash itself but on what happened afterwards.

A mass fall with just over 23 kilometres remaining in the stage to Veliko Tarnovo left several riders injured, with UAE Team Emirates - XRG among the worst-hit teams as Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler were all later forced out of the race.

For York, the most troubling issue was the decision to let the race resume before the situation had fully stabilised. “Restarting the race when there were people still on the ground or being medically evacuated, their status unknown, was poor, very poor,” she wrote.

The crash triggered a temporary neutralisation, but York challenged the way that sequence was later presented and managed. “In the official communiqué, the claim was that the race was neutralised for 4km and then restarted when a sufficient number of ambulances had made contact with the peloton. The reality was otherwise,” she wrote.

York pointed to the timing of events, noting that the crash happened with 23.2 kilometres to go, the neutralisation was announced at 20 kilometres to go, and the race director then restarted racing as the 18 kilometres to go marker appeared on screen.

“There were no ambulances in sight, half the team cars were missing and riders were still trying to come back, many of them with blood still spilling from wounds suffered in the crash,” York wrote.

The decision has already become one of the central controversies of the Giro’s opening weekend. Jasper Stuyven was highly critical after the stage, while several riders were seen speaking with race officials during the neutralised section, including Jonas Vingegaard, Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan.

York argued that the circumstances were exactly the kind in which neutralisation exists. “Safety, primarily, as there is not an adequate emergency response; fairness, because it’s an unexpected incident; and basic human respect for those directly impacted,” she wrote.

York also connected the neutralisation debate to the racing that followed. Once the race resumed, Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman collected bonus seconds at the Red Bull Kilometre before Vingegaard attacked on the Lyaskovets Monastery Pass.

York viewed that move partly through the lens of safety, after Vingegaard later said his attack was intended to reduce the size of the group before the descent. “Egan Bernal taking the bonus seconds won’t be a thing in the last week and Jonas Vingegaard saying that his attacking on the climb was to keep himself safe for the windy descent signalled his reaction to being placed in danger again,” she wrote.

The Dane was eventually joined by Giulio Pellizzari and Lennert Van Eetvelt before the trio were brought back in the final kilometre, with Guillermo Thomas Silva taking a historic stage win and the Maglia Rosa for XDS Astana.

Even so, York saw Vingegaard’s move as an early sign of what may be coming. She described the Visma leader as being “in really good shape and, as expected, ever attentive”, adding that if he had held off Pellizzari and Van Eetvelt, she suspected he “would have soloed to the finish with a 20- or 30-second lead.”

“As it is, a warning was given to the other contenders of what is to come,” York wrote.

For UAE, the same weekend delivered the opposite message. With Yates, Vine and Soler all out, York summed up the team’s situation bluntly: “Disaster.” That leaves Jan Christen carrying their GC hopes in his first Grand Tour, a task York described as “a big ask” against Vingegaard.

The Giro now resumes in Italy after a bruising Bulgarian opening, but York’s column underlines how the consequences of Stage 2 are unlikely to fade quickly. The injuries changed the race. The restart has ensured the debate around safety and race direction will follow it too.