South America laughs, France mourns at Giro d'Italia: "Gaudu still came to apologize"

The seventh stage didn’t initially seem ominous, but with 41 kilometers to go, there was what’s commonly called a “race incident.” A Polti–VisitMalta rider swerved, causing Gaudu’s front wheel to clip the familiar rear wheel of the rider ahead, sending him to the ground. The Frenchman brought down compatriot Bardet with him, and both were left in pain after the crash.

Bardet, with help from Chris Hamilton, was able to rejoin the race fairly quickly. Gaudu, on the other hand, had to rely on his entire Groupama-FDJ team to form a mini team time trial to bring him back. In the end, he limited his losses to 51 seconds, while Bardet—after helping position Max Poole, who eventually finished ninth, sat up and crossed the line more than five minutes down.

“I didn’t really understand what happened,” Bardet told Eurosport. “Gaudu came to apologize, but the truth is that 90 percent of the time, the tension in the peloton is unnecessary. It feels so stupid to crash like that, and I hit my knee hard, so I hope it’s nothing serious. The impact was on my kneecap, and I hope that’s all I’m feeling now and that it gets better in a few days. We just have to live with it.”

Gaudu had previously broken a bone in his left hand during Tirreno-Adriatico, and this time he took a hard hit to his right hand, which was badly bloodied. “Pfff, it’s frustrating... I don’t even know what to say. A rider in front of me swerved, I touched the wheel, and I went down. I had been focused all day, and then I still crash,” he complained. Gaudu also expressed concern about the aftermath. “I can see the tendon in my hand,” he told Eurosport.

On the other end of the spectrum was Bernal, who impressively finished third behind Juan Ayuso and Isaac Del Toro. “It was a very tough first mountain stage, but the team kept me in a good position all day. In the end, it came down to the legs, and I was still missing a little something, but that’s just how it is. I may still be lacking a bit for the win, but we’ll keep trying,” he said via his team’s channels. Thymen Arensman finished 17th, showing improvement compared to stage one.

Carapaz, who finished eighth, was also in good shape, great news after his crash on Thursday. “I woke up with some muscle soreness and knew it would be an explosive climb, but I think we managed it well,” said the EF Education–EasyPost team leader afterward.