Sadly, for Astana ProTeam’s Miguel Angel Lopez, this season’s Giro d’Italia hasn’t started in the best way possible. The Colombian rider suffered a major setback when he was involved in an identical crash like Chris Froome’s training crash who also lost a considerable amount of time.
The Colombian rider hit the deck injuring his right leg. The incident left him in the 61st place in the first stage alone, aka, 56 seconds behind.
However, considering the fact there are another three weeks left until the second most important Grand Tour comes to an end, this is absolutely not a definitive time loss for Lopez who is also one of the GC favourites.
Staying positive
“I got a few cuts and bruises on the crash, but it was nothing important. The important thing is that I got through okay and now I can move on,” Lopez told Cyclingnews.
“My front wheel went on a zebra crossing on a corner; there was nothing I could do. But my motivation is good. I just want to get through these first few days, see how I get on in the mountains and see what happens there.”
The good news is, despite the tough opening stage, Lopez seems to be determined to put all his bad luck behind him and focus on the next stages, especially on the mountain ones.
“I’m not willing to name a particular objective, I will try to do the GC, but I just have to see how it goes,” Lopez added. “It’s a very hard third week, above all, so I want to take it on the day-by-day, depending on my feelings. We’ve got a good team, and we’re all in good condition, so we’ll take it step by step.”
??#Giro101 Stage 3, just one word: thrilling! @eliaviviani doubles up in Eilat. We’ve got the real Superman! | ??#Giro101 Tappa 3, una sola parola: Emozionante! Elia Viviani fa il bis a Eilat. Abbiamo il vero Superman! #Giro pic.twitter.com/O5i7MSFokz
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 6, 2018