Team Sky's chances of overall success at Tirreno-Adriatico ended before they had even begun after a high-speed crash and other mechanical problems on the opening day team time trial meant they had to sit up and wait so they could finish with the minimum requirement of five riders.
Gianni Moscon crashed in spectacular fashion late in the 22.7km time trial after his front tri-spoke wheel collapsed under him. He later attributed the failure to hitting a hole in the road. Moscon went down hard on his right shoulder but was not seriously injured and eventually finished the stage.
Geraint Thomas explained that Diego Rosa and Mikel Landa also suffered similar problems and, due to the delays in waiting for riders to rejoin, Team Sky set a time 1:42 slower than stage winners BMC. Thomas, Rosa and Landa now face an uphill battle in the overall classification.
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"It was Murphy's Law: what can go wrong, will go wrong," Thomas said dejectedly after warming down.
"We started decently steady, and on the way back, we were really starting to shift. Myself, Kawasaki [Michal Kwiatkowski] and Kiri [Vasil Kiryienka] were feeling good and riding consistently at 60-61km/h. Then we hit two holes, and three wheels just collapsed basically. And that just ended it.
"Moscon was the first one, and he took out Kiri of the back," Thomas explained. "Then it happened again, and there was only four of us left, so we had to wait. It felt like forever; we were freewheeling for a couple of kilometres. We just had to wait for the fifth guy.
— Laura Meseguer (@Laura_Meseguer) March 8, 2017
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