Wiebes breaks silence with positive message after Giro d'Italia Women disqualification

Lorena Wiebes has not had the luckiest few days of her life. After winning the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia Women on Saturday, the Dutch rider was disqualified because her bike was allegedly 20 grams too light according to the UCI. Wiebes has now spoken for the first time via Instagram.

You could almost call it Wiebes-gate by now. The SD Worx-Protime rider sprinted to a commanding stage victory and the first pink jersey in the women’s Giro d’Italia, but could enjoy it for only a few hours. In the evening, RCS announced that the UCI would throw Wiebes out of the race because her bike was too light.

SD Worx-Protime did not let it go. Team boss Erwin Janssen and sports director Danny Stam were furious about the DSQ of their leader and immediately issued a statement saying they would hold the UCI accountable. In addition to stage one, Wiebes could also have scored several more times in the rest of the race, including the stages two and three, which were won by Elisa Balsamo.

Wiebes herself was immediately flown back to the Netherlands to recover from all the fuss. The fast rider had prepared perfectly for the women’s Giro d’Italia, but unfortunately she could ultimately only show that in stage one.

The rider herself had not said anything until now, but on Monday evening she posted her first message on Instagram. The telling hashtag #theshowmustgoon in the post says enough about how the strong Wiebes is dealing with it. Manager André Boskamp also told Dutch outlet De Telegraaf that Wiebes is coping well and processing it in her own way.

“In a camper, on her own, she is on her way to a campsite in Italy. Not just for a holiday, but also to train. She wants to be good in Copenhagen on 13 June, for the WorldTour sprint race, the Copenhagen Sprint. Lorena is a strong girl, she will definitely get over this. But she needs some rest now,” Boskamp said.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs | email: [email protected]