Giro d’Italia 2020 - Wiggins: Stage 19 mess shows how divided the peloton is
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ByEurosport
Updated 24/10/2020 at 12:31 GMT
Bradley Wiggins was joined by Dan Lloyd on the Bradley Wiggins Show to discuss a day at the Giro that was marred by the incident at the start. Wiggins and Lloyd mull over a bizarre day that saw a rider protest force organisers to slash 125km from Stage 19. Wiggins adds that the incident is illustrative of divisions within the peloton given its reaction to Jonathan Vaughters’ proposal.
Red Flag / Race neutralised due to heavy rain and team riders protest
Image credit: Getty Images
Bradley Wiggins and Dan Lloyd pick through a controversial day at the Giro in the latest episode of the Bradley Wiggins Show, with the 2012 Tour de France winner asking why, in the light of Adam Hansen’s posts on social media, there was so little support for Jonathan Vaughters and EF Pro Cycling's suggestion to curtail the race.
Hansen, in a post on Twitter, said the proposal to shorten the stage was put forward on Thursday due to the length of the stage, the weather and the worries over immune system suppression.
“The riders put Hansen forward as the spokesman and I think his argument contradicts the whole affair with Jonathan Vaughters,” began Wiggins.
Vaughters, manager of EF Pro Cycling, had suggested last week, as exclusively revealed by Eurosport, to halt the Giro d’Italia on the second rest day of the race, because of "a clearly compromised bubble". There had been growing concerns among the peloton about the safety of racing through the global pandemic, after 11 Covid-19 tests were returned positive across five teams on the first rest day.
“If that is the case with the immune systems being low with the pandemic, then perhaps they should have followed JV and been a little more unified on that - where JV almost got laughed off by the rest of the peloton," said Wiggins.
Based on the reason that Adam Hansen gave today on behalf of the riders, if [immune system weakness] is a concern then perhaps they should have stopped the race last Sunday.
“It kind of contradicts and shows how un-unified the peloton really is.”
A truncated Stage 19 culminated in a win for Josef Cerny, who rode clear of a 14-man breakaway to take an unexpected win in Asti. The peloton came home almost 12 minutes in arrears, with Dutchman Wilco Kelderman of Team Sunweb retaining his lead in the GC.
Over in Spain, brilliant Sam Bennett roared to victory on Stage 4 at the Vuelta a España, with the Irishman backed to win an “enormous number of races” in the coming years.
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