🎥 Geraint Thomas clearly embarrassed after "stupid mistake", Pogacar is mainly proud of how everyone reacted

"It was just a stupid mistake. I looked over my shoulder and they moved a bit in front of me. I hit the rider ahead and went down," the INEOS Grenadiers leader said immediately after the race. "Luckily, I got a new bike quickly and the BORA-hansgrohe car brought me back fast. Other than that, I'm fine, it was just a stupid mistake. Now there's one big day left on Saturday," he concluded, clearly not wanting to dwell on the incident any longer.

Pink jersey holder Tadej Pogacar did address it, both in the mixed zone and at the press conference. According to the Slovenian, Thomas' crash was unfortunate, but it was followed by a nice reaction from the rest of the GC contenders. They politely waited for the Welshman, who was briefly panicking after his fall, but was able to quickly return to the pack because of the gesture.

"The entire Giro has been great in terms of the respect we've shown each other," Pogacar said, praising his colleagues. "We saw that again today when Thomas crashed. Nobody wanted to do anything stupid, it was a beautiful moment for cycling. I hope he's okay and I'm glad that no one wanted to take advantage of it. I know a crash can always happen, so you always need to stay focused and anticipate what might happen. But you can't always be one hundred percent."

Since no one took advantage, the differences in the general classification remained the same. As a result, Pogacar heads into the last mountain stage with a lead of 7.42 minutes over second-place Daniel Felipe Martínez. Thomas is third, 8.04 behind the Slovenian.