Around noon the riders left Siena for a 184-kilometre race. Before the most standout gravel sections had even started, the riders in the front of the peloton crashed. A strong gust of wind immediately ruined the chances of many ambitious riders. Benoot somersaulted and ended up on his back and knee. It soon became clear that the Belgian had to leave the race. Kuss was also unlucky as the American crashed twice. Tadej Pogacar was in the breakaway, with several riders fighting for the remaining podium places in his wake.

Benoot felt good until the crash. “I felt like I was riding well. I managed to stay in front on the gravel sections. At the moment of the crash I was with the front of the bunch. I don’t think you can be much safer than that. Unfortunately, I could not avoid the two riders who crashed. A gust of wind made us all smash into the tarmac. My condition was good, and I would have liked to take advantage of that today. For now, the important thing is recovering quickly. My back is hurting me at the moment, so it won’t be easy to sleep tonight. My left knee has an open wound and cannot be stitched up. I need to take it from day to day, see how I will recover, so hopefully I can set new goals for this spring as soon as possible.”

Due to the crash’s aftermath, Benoot will not start in Tirreno-Adriatico next week.

Kuss also rode an unfortunate race. “When Pogacar attacked, I couldn’t follow him. He was simply the strongest today. Later on in the race I crashed again due to stupidity, so I had no chance on the podium. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this race. I feel good, so hopefully that bodes well for the upcoming races.”

“In hindsight, this was a disappointing day for us”, stated sports director Maarten Wynants. “Before the majority of the peloton crashed, we had everything well under control. We can’t blame anyone today. Sometimes you have days like this and these kinds of races are too hard to overcome any setbacks.”