Bernal and Tiberi lose time after crash, Italian fears the worst: "Afraid it’s more than just scrapes"

It happened about 23 kilometers from the finish. A rider from Bahrain Victorious was the first to go down and took nearly the entire Lidl-Trek team with him. Team leader Tiberi was also caught in the crash. He crossed the line two minutes behind stage winner Kasper Asgreen and spoke to Cycling Pro about how badly his body was hurting. “I’m afraid it’s more than just scrapes. I felt a lot of pain when I got up because I hit the curb hard and others fell on top of me.”

In the chaos of the crash, Tiberi ended up at the very bottom of the pile. “My ankles were stuck under other bikes,” said the 23-year-old Italian. Still, he drew some encouragement from the fact that, despite the pain, he was able to continue relatively well. “The fact that I could push on the pedals and make it to the finish on another bike makes me think, and hope, that I haven’t broken anything.”

Almost the entire Bahrain team was forced to chase. “On the cobblestone section in a corner, my front wheel slipped out. I’m not sure if it was my own wheel or if a rider in front of me crashed, but several of us from the team went down. We did everything we could and stayed together as a team. Everyone stopped for me. Except Damiano (Caruso, ed.), and rightfully so.” Caruso finished in the front group of favorites and moved up to seventh in the general classification, one place ahead of his younger teammate.

It wasn’t just Tiberi and Ciccone among the GC riders who were affected: Bernal also hit the cobbles. “There was a lot of tension to stay at the front, and we crashed right in front of ourselves,” he told Cycling Pro. The INEOS Grenadiers leader described the aftermath as total chaos. “I hope no one was seriously injured. I don’t know what exactly happened. It all went so fast. I tried to avoid the crash, but it didn’t work. A lot of us went down. I don’t think it’s anything serious for me, and I hope that’s true for the others as well.” The Colombian eventually lost 48 seconds to pink jersey Isaac Del Toro.