Thibaut Pinot hospitalized after Stage 20 of Giro d’Italia
French rider took ill during stage, plummeting from third to 16th
Thibaut Pinot (France/Groupama-FDJ) was taken to the hospital after Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Giro d’Italia, his team announced. It is most likely that he wouldn’t finish the race in Rome on Sunday.
âž¡ @ThibautPinot was kept under observation tonight at Aosta hospital. He suffers from deshydration and fever but is well taken care of and accompanied by our team doctor Jacky Maillot. We will give you more informations tomorrow morning. #Giro101
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) May 26, 2018
Pinot was the latest and hopefully last 2018 Giro d’Italia favourite to implode during the race, taking ill on the first of three Cat. 1 climbs during Saturday’s penultimate stage. Pinot was clearly in distress, unable to keep down energy gels but somehow managing to finish 45-minutes after the day’s winner, Mikel Nieve.
Pinot, on his way to his second career Grand Tour podium, plummeted from third to 16th. He was fourth in last year’s edition.
The 101st Giro’s story has been one of woeful collapses, starting with Stage 6 winner Esteban Chaves, who had a nightmare on Stage 10 from which he never recovered, slipping farther down the leader board until came to rest at 73rd, the worst Grand Tour result of his career.
Fabio Aru never fell below 27th in the GC after peaking at 10th, but he clearly wasn’t at his best. Although not exactly a collapse, he had to be convinced to continue on Stage 15 and was clearly unhappy with a motorcycle camera recording his misery. Following a uncharacteristically solid time trial after which he was docked 20-seconds for drafting, the 2015 Vuelta a España champion packed it in on Stage 19.
Fabio Aru's #Giro101 is over
The Italian champion has abandoned the race on Stage 19 ? pic.twitter.com/viH7CH4mYN
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 25, 2018
The most dramatic implosion was clearly Simon Yates‘s while wearing pink. Yates hadn’t put a foot wrong until Stage 18 when he lost half his lead to Tom Dumoulin. But Stage 19 was a real horror show, and thankfully the cameras left him alone as he struggled. Like teammate Chaves, Yates had reached his limits and if the race would have continued in the mountains, he would have kept falling like the Colombian. Eighteenth after Stage 19, Yates dropped out of the top-20 on Saturday.
