Adam Yates, Egan Bernal and Dani Martínez all escaped major injuries after a large crash in the opening stage of the 2021 Vuelta a Burgos, but still could potentially jeopardise their Vuelta a España chances.
The Ineos Grenadiers leaders were being kept close to the front of the peloton for much of the race but were still unfortunately caught out by a crash that happened when they were in the second group on the road with 19km to go.
The riders are all expected to be heading to the Vuelta in just a few weeks time, so the timing of this crash is not good. The British registered team will be hoping that the injuries aren't too severe and that they can potentially focus on the GC with other riders like Pavel Sivakov in Burgos before reverting back to Yates and Bernal for the Vuelta.
In a team statement, Ineos Grenadiers said: "The three riders [Bernal, Yates and Martínez] had been part of the second group on the road when a large crash took down a number of riders with 19 kilometres to go. The trio were assessed at the roadside before continuing at their own pace to the finish, with Carlos Rodriguez also waiting at the scene for his teammates.
"Bernal, Yates and Martinez suffered contusions and abrasions in the crash and after a post-stage assessment, will be monitored by the Ineos Grenadiers medical team ahead of Wednesday’s stage."
It did look like Ineos could still get something out of the opening stage though with Sivakov, along with Jhonatan Narváez, making it into a select group of leading riders. But they were caught inside the final four kilometres with Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Fenix) out-sprinting Movistar's Gonzalo Serrano to stage victory.
Ineos will be hoping to use Burgos as a chance to build form and bounce back from what, by their standards, was another relatively disappointing Tour de France despite getting third overall with Richard Carapaz.
The Vuelta team is expected to be packed with climbing talent with Bernal hoping to complete his Grand Tour set and win the Vuelta after winning the Giro d'Italia earlier in the year. Yates will make his Grand Tour debut for Ineos, while Martínez, Sivakov as well as Carapaz, and Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock are all currently down to ride.
The Vuelta a España 2021 is due to start with a prologue in Burgos on August 14 and will run for three testing weeks over hellishly steep mountains before a time trial finish in Santiago de Compostela on September 5.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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