🎥 Giro Stage 1 crash updates: Groenewegen partially dislocated shoulder — but he starts stage 2

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."

The whole Alpecin-Premier Tech Giro squad waited for Groves, with Edward Planckaert and Jensen Plowright having also crashed earlier in the stage. All three are expected to start stage 2 on Saturday, according to a team update: "Kaden sustained abrasions to both shoulders, his calf and his elbow, but is expected to start tomorrow without too many issues."

Groenewegen did not escape the crash either, though the Dutch Unibet Rose Rockets sprinter also made it to the finish line. He pushed through the pain and immediately underwent medical checks, during which no urgent problems were identified.

A further check was carried out at the hotel — and even after that, the lights stayed green for stage 2. In principle, the team now have another opportunity on day three, though Marcel Kittel made clear the sprint preparation will need to improve.

In a short video from the massage table, Groenewegen was characteristically direct: "Take the knock and move on. There'll be more chances. That's life at a Grand Tour: whether you win or not, you have to switch gears immediately."

Ahead of stage 2, Groenewegen spoke to CyclingPro.net — and it emerged that the damage was rather more serious than initially thought. "It was more the shoulder. It came out of the socket a bit, but it's back in now," he said. He then revealed to IDL Pro Cycling that he had had to put it back in himself.

A nasty blow, then — though there had initially been fears of a broken collarbone, so it could have been a great deal worse. "It's all a bit stiff now, but it should be fine over the coming days. Falling is never fun, but today we have a long stage where I can get my legs warmed up."

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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."

Groves and Groenewegen were far from the only riders to hit the tarmac on day one of the Giro — across the full width of the road, many others were caught up in the chaos too. Matteo Moschetti, for one, crossed the finish line dead last, alongside Fabio Christen.

The Italian Pinarello-Q36.5 rider gave his reaction afterwards to Italian media and pointed to Erlend Blikra of Uno-X Mobility as the rider who triggered the initial crash. The Norwegian crossed the finish line second to last, just ahead of Moschetti. "He hit the barriers and I was on his wheel — I had no way of avoiding the fall," said Moschetti, who is expecting the damage to be relatively minor.

A video filmed from the roadside also shows a large number of XDS Astana's light blue jerseys on the road. The Kazakh team confirmed that Davide Ballerini, Alberto Bettiol, Thomas Silva and Matteo Malucelli all went down — but added: "They made it to the finish and everything seems okay so far."