UAE Team Emirates-XRG had put themselves in an enviable position after stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under, with its two former winners in Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez in first and second with a margin of around one minute to their nearest overall rivals, but on Saturday's shortened stage 4, Narváez crashed and it was soon announced that he would be leaving the race.
After being seen writhing in pain on the TV images, a post-race medical update from UAE confirmed the severity of Narváez's back injury and that he will stay at the hospital for the moment.
"Narváez was taken to hospital for precautionary spinal and neurological assessment," read a statement from UAE's Medical Director, Dr. Adrian Rotunno.
"He has sustained several stable thoracic vertebrae compression fractures, that will not require surgery at this stage. He is currently stable and will be kept in hospital for further observation."
With recovery time unclear yet, but sure to be several weeks, Narváez crashing hard not only affects Vine's defence of the lead at the Tour Down Under, albeit heading into the final stage, but potentially also the Classics, where the Ecuadorian is often a key helper for Tadej Pogačar.
The shortened stage – altered due to the extreme fire risk and temperatures rising over 40°C – had barely got underway when the crash occurred and it quickly became clear that the Ecuadorian would not be continuing.
His abandon was confirmed by Tour Down Under's live results feed with its social media adding, "Not the start of the day UAE Team Emirates-XRG hoped for: After Adam Yates crashing yesterday, it's now Jhonatan Narváez who is forced to leave the Santos Tour Down Under."
Then another UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was also involved in a crash, with Vegard Stake Laengen involved in a later fall which also led to him leaving the race. His injury was less severe, with UAE not signalling any fractures in their update.
"Laengen was also involved in a later incident and taken to hospital for assessment," said Rotunno. "He has a suspected rib injury but is stable, and will be monitored further over the coming days."
At the start of the stage, Narváez had been six seconds back from race-leading teammate Vine, with his nearest rival being Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) at a further 59 seconds back.
Ahead of the stage, UAE Team Emirates-XRG sports director Fabrizio Guidi had told Cyclingnews that the team would be in defence mode, and warned that they would not be able to let their guard down for a second.
"It's windy, and when it's a sprint stage it's always difficult. Like yesterday, you saw crashes and all these things and we would always start anyway with a huge concentration," he said. "We can never relax, never because everybody thinks it's easy, it's easy, but at the end of the day we need to do these 130 kms and then tomorrow also, so that's not the case."
Before the stage was even halfway through UAE Team Emirates-XRG were two riders down in its defence of Vine's leader's jersey.
Vine, however, came safely through the day of racing and maintained his lead heading into the final day at a commanding 1:03 to the now second-placed Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla).
