Santiago Buitrago hospitalised and forced to abandon as toll of Stage 2 crash rises at the 2026 Giro d’Italia

The list of casualties from the brutal Stage 2 crash at the 2026 Giro d’Italia has grown again, with Santiago Buitrago forced to abandon the race after being caught up in the mass fall on wet roads in Bulgaria.

The Bahrain - Victorious leader was one of the notable general classification outsiders at this year’s Giro, but his race is already over after the incident that tore through the peloton with around 23 kilometres remaining on the road to Veliko Tarnovo.

Bahrain - Victorious confirmed the news after the stage, writing: “With approximately 23km to go on Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia, Santiago Buitrago was forced to abandon the race after being involved in a crash. He has been taken to the closest hospital for further exams.”

No further diagnosis has yet been confirmed by the team.

Buitrago’s abandon adds another major name to the fallout from one of the most damaging early incidents of the 2026 Giro. The crash came on slippery roads before the final climb to the Lyaskovets Monastery, just after the long breakaway of Diego Pablo Sevilla and Mirco Maestri had been caught and the peloton was beginning to organise for the finale.

The scale of the incident was immediately clear. Multiple riders went down, medical vehicles were occupied, and the race was temporarily neutralised so those involved could receive assistance and attempt to rejoin.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG were hit particularly hard, with Jay Vine taken away on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, Marc Soler also sent to hospital, and Adam Yates later finishing more than 12 minutes down after crashing heavily. Antonio Morgado was also caught up and left nursing pain after the stage. Buitrago’s abandon now gives Bahrain - Victorious their own major blow from the same incident.

Stage 2 was expected to bring the first tactical test of the Giro, but the crash has already had wider consequences than the final climb or stage result alone.

Guillermo Thomas Silva eventually won the stage and moved into the Maglia Rosa, while Jonas Vingegaard launched an early attack on the final climb before the front trio were brought back in the closing kilometre.

Yet for several teams, the bigger story was damage limitation. Buitrago’s exit removes one of the race’s dangerous climbing contenders before the Giro has even reached Italy, while UAE are left waiting on hospital updates after a disastrous day for their own GC structure. The race continues on Sunday with Stage 3 from Plovdiv to Sofia, but the impact of the Stage 2 crash is already likely to be felt far beyond Bulgaria.