Geraint Thomas Calls Stage 9 of Giro d’Italia “Carnage” Amid Naples’ Pothole Chaos
Geraint Thomas, currently holding third place in the Giro d’Italia’s GC standings, voiced sharp criticism after surviving a chaotic Stage 9 marred by crashes and treacherous road conditions in Naples.
Other than pizza, Mount Vesuvius, and the wide bay the city curves around, Naples is perhaps most famous for its roads. Or, maybe more accurately, the state of its roads. The city’s potholes are the stuff of legend, and after Sunday’s ninth stage, the INEOS Grenadiers rider had much to say about the rough-and-tumble pavement.
“We were bouncing all over the place,” said the 37-year-old Welshman, who currently sits third in the Giro d’Italia’s GC standings. “People are going on a lot about safety at the moment, and that’s definitely not safe. Just clowns in the circus, aren’t we, sometimes.”
Just a few hours before his post-race comments, Thomas was involved in a wreck with fifty-eight kilometers still left to race. Luckily, he suffered only a minor injury to his elbow and was able to finish the stage.
In the incident, Thomas crashed into BORA-hansgrohe’s Max Schachman. However, after a quick bike change, and with help from Ben Swift, Connor Swift, and Tobias Foss, he was able to get back to the peloton with relative ease. But it was as the kilometers ticked down, into and around the heart of Naples, that Thomas took umbrage with.
“In the final, it was chaotic, big time. But the boys like they’ve been doing all week, they looked after me really well, so I was in a perfect place most of the time.”
More than the crash, Thomas’s comments were focused on the stage’s finale, which he described as “carnage.” “Obviously, the chain was jumping everywhere, which is not very nice,” Thomas said. “It’s pretty scary when you’ve got guys pretty desperate and bouncing underneath you, and you’ve got massive holes everywhere. I was just glad to get through that stage, to be honest.
“That final couple of descents, with the holes in the road, it was just absolute chaos. And we don’t help ourselves. I tried to give myself a bit of a gap so I could see the holes for safety. But as soon as you let a gap go, some idiot’s divebombing you to get in the gap. It was just absolute carnage.”
This isn’t the first time a rider has taken umbrage publicly about some of the elements of this year’s still-young Giro. After stage 4, which saw the riders finish on a downhill sprint and Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan win the bunch sprint at seventy-five kilometers per hour, Soudal Quick Step’s sprinter Tim Merlier said, “I am just happy I am still alive.”
Regarding stage 4’s downhill sprint finish, Phil Bauhaus of Bahrain Victorious added, “To be honest, I’m not a fan of a finish like today. We go down at more than 80 kilometers per hour with a whole peloton. That’s not necessary, is it?”
Thomas, who went into Monday’s rest day two-minutes-and-fifty-eight-seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), added that the day off came at just the right time. “I’m just happy to get out of this peloton away from everyone, to be honest,” he said. “I’m a grumpy old man now.”
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