Casper van Uden suffers painful hand after crash: "But legs are fine"

The sprinters did not get their chance on Saturday, but the final Giro stage on Bulgarian soil seems tailor-made for the fast men. So, all eyes are on Casper van Uden, although the Dutchman from Picnic PostNL was also caught up in the massive crash. How is Van Uden feeling now?

"I think more than half of our team was on the ground," he said before the start to Cycling Pro Net. "We were five riders involved in the crash, so that’s not ideal. It’s never nice to see such a big pile-up, but I think we came out of it fairly well, especially compared to some other guys. I’m looking forward to today."

Van Uden himself did not come out of the crash completely unscathed. "I’m doing okay. My hand is pretty painful and quite swollen, but you just have to push through and see how it goes. My legs are fine, so we’re just going all out today. I think everyone is okay. If not, we’ll have to adjust our plans a bit, but the guys are looking forward to the sprint."

Watch out for tricky finish
What can the fast man from Picnic PostNL say about today’s finale? "It’s pretty straightforward until the last 200 meters, and then suddenly there are cobblestones. An interesting choice, because there are also perfect roads here to finish on. But well, that’s not up to me."

"Hopefully we can pull off another lead-out like in the Tour of Turkey. I’ll try to follow the guys and then find the space for a nice sprint. The GC has shuffled a bit, meaning there may be fewer riders today able to take the pink jersey. That might make it a bit less hectic, although with those wide roads and so many sprint teams, it’s always exciting."