Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) will be without key climbing super-domestique Jai Hindley on the first summit finish at the Giro d'Italia and throughout the brutal third week full of mountains, after the former winner was forced to leave the race due to a crash.
His team announced late on Thursday that Hindley had suffered a concussion. "He will remain overnight in hospital for observation. We wish him and all the other riders involved in the crash all the best for their recovery," the team wrote.
On Friday morning, Hindley revealed he also had a lower-back fracture.
"I went down pretty hard and have a slight concussion and fracture in my L3 vertebrae, but otherwise am all good," he wrote in an Instagram story.
Hindley had been set to be Roglič's right-hand man in the high terrain, with last year's Giro runner-up Dani Martínez not being at his best five days into the action.
The 2022 Giro winner also started the sixth stage sat 15th overall, after a strong start and solid time trial in Tirana on stage 2 left just 41 seconds separating him and team leader Roglič.
But without Hindley, the Slovenian is down his key lieutenant, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe no longer have two cards to play, with the team confirming at the finish that a new, perhaps less aggressive, approach would be needed heading into the remaining 15 stages.
"You're right, this changes things. I think we cannot hide this. Jai played a major role in our strategy, and we don't have him anymore now," said sports director Christian Pömer to Cyclingnews and Daniel Benson's Substack at the team bus.
"Nevertheless, we still have six good riders who can support Primož, also Martiínez is a former podium rider in the Giro, and I will have to look day by day at what is possible.
"Generally, I think the approach stays the same, but we maybe have to just, instead of trying to win one stage or the other, save our energy and focus only on the GC."
While Friday's stage to Tagliacozzo offers up the first summit finish of the 108th Giro, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe DS didn't think this was where Hindley's absence would be felt most, with ascents like the Colle delle Finestre and a whole host of other brutal climbs backloaded into the third week.
"I think tomorrow it doesn't play a major role, it's a relatively easy summit finish, where only seconds will be in the game," said Pömer.
"Basically, for tomorrow, it doesn't matter; it's more for the Alps, where we're really going to miss Jai.
"I think we will see this day by day. It's still a long way to the real high mountains, and it's for sure not the last crash that will happen along the way."
The incident also saw Jan Tratnik and Martínez go down, with less severe outcomes than for Hindley. For once, Roglič managed to avoid the chaos and seemed to play a role in communicating with organisers before the GC times were neutralised for the day.
As the pre-race favourite, Roglič will now look ahead to the seventh stage, where, if it comes down to an uphill sprint between the Giro d'Italia GC favourites, he will be expected to win and extend his lead over those also chasing the overall.
Having only narrowly lost out to Josh Tarling in the Tirana TT, Roglič already has a lead over expected main rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with several other contenders even further down before this initial mountain test.
Roglič himself admitted pre-stage 6 that the finish doesn't feature one of the climbs he did a recon of, with the race favourite and current best-placed GC hopeful not expecting too many fireworks in the Abruzzo region.
"No, I didn't do a recon, I don't know it. For sure, there will be a fight, we will go full, but in the end, yes, it's about the legs, so hopefully I have the legs to follow the best guys," said Roglič in Potenza.
"Everyone is there, you shouldn't write off nobody. It's just the start of the Giro, and we'll still be having a big fight tomorrow." While Pömer doesn't expect Hindley's absence to play much of a role tomorrow, it could be tricky if the likes of UAE start to launch attacks with their GC hopes, and there's no doubt Red Bull are severely weakened without him.
The team have now provided a medical update on why exactly Hindley had to abandon, with a confirmed concussion, after looking shaken up after the mass incident at high speed occurred. Pömer also, thankfully, confirmed that Hindley was not knocked unconscious during the crash and communicated with the team in the moments afterwards.
"Of course, we were shocked that there was such a big crash happening," said the Austrian.
"He was conscious, and as you know, here at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, we don't give away medical details, but the race doctor confirmed there is no chance to continue the race.
"I'm not a doctor," said Pömer, when asked if they knew yet whether it was a concussion, "He was able to communicate, but as I said, the doctor said there was no chance to keep going, and you don't have to be a medical expert to see that this was the right decision."
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