Starting his debut Grand Tour at the Giro d’Italia, Timo de Jong was excited to take on a three week adventure with Team Picnic PostNL Raisin. Unfortunately, that journey has been cut short as he stepped off the bike during today’s stage.
On Sunday, De Jong crashed on a left corner at around eight kilometres to go and in the fall aggravated a previous wrist injury; which he sustained at the GP Monseré earlier in the season. Further checks on Monday’s rest day cleared him medically to race, but unfortunately the pain in De Jong’s wrist was too much for him to continue on stage five.
Team Picnic PostNL Raisin coach Matt Winston: “It’s a real shame to lose Timo from the race. He was an important member of our sprint train and someone that can be strong on a variety of terrain. We’ll not only miss his horsepower in the bunch, but he is someone that is motivated and brings a lot of energy to the group too; and it was great to see him experiencing his first Grand Tour. We hope that he recovers well and we’ll see him back racing when ready. The rest of the squad here will continue to chase stage results for the remainder of the race.”
