{"id":120112,"date":"2026-05-08T14:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/magnier-sprints-into-pink-after-crash-carnage\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:33:18","slug":"magnier-sprints-into-pink-after-crash-carnage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/magnier-sprints-into-pink-after-crash-carnage\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnier Sprints into Pink after Crash Carnage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>Rising French speedster wins opening stage of 2026 Giro after huge crash splits the bunch in final kilometer of Bulgarian grande partenza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\"> (Photo: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Updated May 8, 2026 09:12AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) won a drastically reduced sprint after a huge pileup marred the final of the first stage of the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/giro-ditalia\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The young Frenchman was one of only around 10 riders who were in front of a mass crash in the final 600m that split the peloton in two.<\/p>\n<p>Magnier nipped Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon-CMA CGM) at the line in Burgas, Bulgaria.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan Vernon (NSN) was a length behind in third.<\/p>\n<p>It was a dream start to the race for the 22-year-old Magnier after he lost his legs through the spring classics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was really hectic in the final, because it was a pretty easy day and everybody was very fresh,\u201d Magnier said at the line. \u201cI was in a good position because we knew it would be tricky with the narrow road in the final. We just tried to get in a good position, and then in the final my team did an amazing job and I could finish it off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m super proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width:100%;border:none;display:block\" title=\"Script Content\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Friday was a disaster for many others however.<\/p>\n<p>Several riders were seen with ripped up jerseys and covered in road rash after around a dozen riders came down hard as the peloton zoomed through the narrow finishing chute.<\/p>\n<p>The final kilometer was lined with barriers with protruding feet that splayed into the roadway.<\/p>\n<p>The tangle of bodies and bikes blocked the road and eliminated several pre-stage hopefuls from the sprint, including Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets). The latter was seen clutching at his wrist in what\u2019s a high-profile grand tour debut for his audacious YouTube-inspired team.<\/p>\n<p>Overall GC favorite Jonas Vingegaard appeared to have escaped unscathed after Visma-Lease a Bike held position at the back of the bunch.<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred in the so-called \u201csafe zone\u201d and so no riders lost time at the line. Their real losses will be felt as the medical checks come in.<\/p>\n<h2>A first ever grande partenza in Bulgaria<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_985294\" class=\"pom-image-wrap photo-alignnone\"><img alt=\"Giro Vingegaard\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-985294\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274369020-1200x800.jpg?width=1200&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 1x, https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274369020-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 2x\" src=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274369020-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover\"\/><figcaption class=\"pom-caption\"><span class=\"article__caption\">Pre-race favorite Vingegaard, shown here at the start, escaped the carnage of the final crash.<\/span> (Photo: Hristo Rusev\/NurPhoto via Getty Images))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The peloton rolled along the Black Sea coast Friday and into the port city Burgas for the first of three stages in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n<p>The stage was very flat, and very uneventful, for a very long time.<\/p>\n<p>A token doomed break of two went away early, and the sprint teams let them have their time in front of the TV cameras.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until deep inside the final 40km that the top sprinter teams \u2013 Quick-Step, Unibet Rose Rockets, and Lidl-Trek \u2013 lit the burners to reel them in at around 23km to go.<\/p>\n<p>The Giro remains in Bulgaria for a longer lumpier stage that should deliver a few more fireworks on Saturday. Can the sprinters survive the 4km, 7 percent hill in the final 15km?<\/p>\n<p>The pink jersey could be at stake.<\/p>\n<h2>Giro d\u2019Italia stage 1 results<\/h2>\n<p><iframe class=\"fp-remove\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.procyclingstats.com\/widgets\/result.php?h=b531a02db114b84e7e03765e2d35a3dae7717f00\" width=\"520\" height=\"320\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-1-mass-pileup-causes-late-carnage-before-magnier-sprints-into-pink-jersey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rising French speedster wins opening stage of 2026 Giro after huge crash splits the bunch in final kilometer of Bulgarian grande partenza. (Photo: Getty Images) Updated May 8, 2026 09:12AM Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) won a drastically reduced sprint after a huge pileup marred the final of the first stage of the Giro d\u2019Italia. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}