Australian cycling ace Kaden Groves had dreamt of victory and the leader's pink jersey on the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia in Bulgaria -- but instead ended bruised and bloodied from a heavy crash which may compromise his hopes in the rest of the three-week Grand Tour.
France's Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) outsprinted Denmark's Tobias Lund Andresen to win the opening stage on Friday but it was the mass crash that had unfolded just moments earlier which plunged the sprint finish of stage one into chaos at Burgas.
Up to 20 riders came down heavily at high speed as they homed in on the finish 600m from the line, among them the 10-time Grand Tour stage winner Groves, who ended up limping away bloodied afterwards, and Dylan Groenewegen, another of the top sprinters who was left holding his injured wrist.
The tangled pile-up of riders and bikes blocked the road and left only 10 riders to battle it out for victory, including Italian race favourite Jonathan Milan, who missed the boat as Magnier pipped Andresen on the line to take his first Grand Tour stage victory. Briton Ethan Vernon came in third with Milan fourth.
But it was a huge blow for the 27-year-old Alpecin-Premier Tech sprint ace Groves, who's just returned after a break of more than two months with knee trouble and has been entrusted with the Belgian team's main stage-winning hopes over the next three weeks.
"Not the way we wanted to start our Giro," the team reported on X afterwards. "After a first medical check, @kaden_groves, the biggest victim of the crash in the finale, seems okay."
Meanwhile, Magnier could hardly believe his luck. "I'm so proud of the team and also my performance," said the 22-year-old.
"It was really hectic in the final because it was a pretty easy day, everybody was really fresh and we knew the narrow road in the final would be tricky so we tried to get in good position."
The flat coastal 147-km ride from Nessebar, the first of three stages in the Italian race's Grande Partenza in Bulgaria, had been a relatively calm affair until the hectic finish.
An early two-rider breakaway of Italian Manuele Tarozzi and Spain's Diego Pablo Sevilla was kept comfortably under control by the peloton and were reeled in with 22km to the line.
Giro favourite Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team were content to play it safe near the back of the peloton, and all the main general classification favourites, including the Australian duo of Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe's co-leader Jai Hindley and Jayco AlUla's Ben O'Connor, got home unscathed.
Magnier will wear the leader's jersey for Saturday's stage two which takes the riders 221km from Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo.
