🎥 'It is what it is': Groves and Groenewegen among the badly injured in Giro stage 1

Kaden Groves and Dylan Groenewegen were two of the many riders to crash in the first stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday. In the final kilometre of what had been an otherwise uneventful finale, the front of the peloton suddenly went down hard. Only a handful of riders escaped and sprinted for the win; for others, it was a case of licking their wounds.

Groves arrived at the Giro with serious ambitions for the sprint stages, but the 27-year-old Australian from Alpecin-Premier Tech was among the most heavily caught up in the crash. Scraped and cut up, he rolled across the finish line near the back of the race before the damage could be assessed.

Things appear relatively okay for Groves, his team confirmed via their official channels. "Not the way we wanted to start our Giro 🫠. After a first medical check, @kaden_groves, the biggest victim of the crash in the finale, seems okay. It is what it is… 20 more stages to go."

Groenewegen did not escape the crash either, though the Dutch Unibet Rose Rockets rider also made it to the finish line. He pushed through the pain and immediately underwent medical checks. According to the team, no urgent problems were identified. "A crash in the final made it impossible to sprint for our team. Dylan Groenewegen was involved in the crash. 🙏 We hope everyone is well." A further check will be carried out at the hotel.

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Uno-X's Erlend Blikra explained to HBO Max after the stage that he that he was the first to go down, creating the alarming domino effect: "I just clipped my front wheel," he said. "I don't know if it was anybody's mistake. I have a lot of wounds on my back, so that's not great on the first day," said Blikra. "It was really easy the whole day, so I think everybody was super fresh in the end, and that just makes it more hectic."