Joao Almeida, Mikel Landa, and Richard Carapaz had all withdrawn from the Giro before the first stage got underway in Bulgaria, which obviously seemed to clear some way in terms of narrowing the field of potential challengers for Vingegaard in this year's Giro d'Italia.
Op top of that, Adam Yates, Jay Vine, Marc Soler, and Santiago Buitrago were then forced to leave the race after their horror crash on the second stage, while Derek Gee also hit the deck and lost more than a minute.
“Keep in mind for Jonas Vingegaard, every one of his stage victories here in the 2026 season, Paris-Nice and Catalunya, all the top GC guys have crashed out,” said Horner on his YouTube channel.
Horner says the wider context around the Dane’s season is remarkable. “I have never seen a hands-down outright favourite have so much luck on his side as we’ve seen with Jonas Vingegaard,” Horner continued. “For the second, third, and sometimes fourth best GC guys crashing out at big-time stage races as I have here with Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard, luck is certainly on his side.”
UAE Team Emirates - XRG have had a particularly tough start to the race as they have lost Yates, Vine, and Soler after the crash on the second stage. Yates otherwise went into the race as one of the biggest remaining threats to Vingegaard following Almeida’s pre-race absence, but his Giro came to an abrupt end after delayed concussion symptoms.
Buitrago, who was also expected to be a big threat to the Dane in the high mountains, was also forced to abandon the Giro after the same crash and was taken to the hospital for further checks.
After three days, the Giro is still to reach Italy. But the potential road to the Maglia Rosa already seems a lot less troubled for Vingegaard than it did a week ago.