Giro peloton wary of UAE Emirates XRG: "They will race like hell"

UAE Emirates will not want to look back on the first days of the Giro d'Italia. With withdrawals from Adam Yates, Jay Vine, and Marc Soler, the team had a dramatic start to the race, but that does not mean they will not play an important role anymore. Fellow riders are certainly on alert. "They will race like hell."

UAE Emirates XRG was the biggest victim of the massive crash in the finale of stage two. Almost the entire team went down in a slippery corner during a downhill section. Several of them were violently thrown against the guardrail. Jay Vine and Marc Soler were the worst affected and had to be taken to the hospital. A day later, team leader Adam Yates also had to abandon the race.

The question is whether the team will be able to redeem themselves in the coming weeks, but Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen – who is riding the Giro for Decathlon CMA CGM – is wary of the squad. "I spoke briefly with Mikkel Bjerg (one of the remaining UAE riders, ed.). He was quite shaken."

"I spoke with him during the third stage and asked: will you join the breakaway? He said no. They were told to try to reach Italy safe and sound," Pedersen said in the Domestique podcast.

However, the Dane does not expect the five remaining UAE Emirates riders to go unnoticed. On the contrary. "They will manage and find a way to be successful. They will definitely win a few stages. Even without general classification ambitions, they will probably race like maniacs in the transitional stages."