Geraint Thomas promises to get 'stuck in' at Giro d’Italia time trial after Blockhaus crash all but ends general classification hopes

Geraint Thomas said he planned to get “stuck in” to Tuesday’s Giro d’Italia time trial, shrugging off his crash in Sunday’s ninth stage in which he was caught up in a multi-rider pile-up caused by a stationary police motorbike.

The Welshman, who had to have his shoulder popped back into its socket and ended up losing more than five minutes to new race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), insisted there was still a “lot of racing to be done” before the Giro ended in Milan on May 28.

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“I’m OK and there’s nothing broken,” the Team Sky rider said after training on his time trial bike on Monday’s rest day. “I’ve had a lot worse injuries and I’ll be able to get through it. It’s not ideal but hopefully it’ll be a bit better again tomorrow and I can get stuck in and see what I’ve got.

“There’s still a lot of racing to be done, whether I go for trying to improve my GC [general classification] position all the way through to Milan, or just try and target a couple of stages. I think just take it day by day at the moment, but certainly go 100 per cent tomorrow [in the time trial from Foligno to Montefalco].”

Team Sky, who had six riders caught up in the crash, said they would wait to see how Mikel Landa felt on Tuesday before making a decision on whether the Spaniard would race on.

Landa, who lost almost 27 minutes following the crash and made the fearsome ascent up to Blockhaus “on one leg”, had a scan on Monday which showed no obvious major injuries.

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Sunday’s incident was hugely controversial with many critical of the race organisers and the positioning of the police motorbike. 

Others, meanwhile, felt the race should have been neutralised. Orica-Scott sporting director Matt White slammed Movistar’s decision to continue riding after the crash, describing it as “poor sportsmanship”.

“It’s pretty disappointing and a poor decision from Movistar as well,” said White, whose British team leader Adam Yates was among those caught out. “There was no need to do that. It wasn’t one kilometre from the finish, it was 15 or 16 kilometres from the finish, they were chasing nobody, and everyone knew who was on the deck. So all they had to do was just wait a little bit to let the guys have a chance to get up. It’s a poor sportsmanship call.”

Tuesday’s 10th stage is a 39.8km time trial from Foligno to Montefalco. Quintana said he expected to face a battle to hang on to his pink jersey with time trial specialists such as Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) within half a minute of him.

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