Giro d'Italia: Tao Geoghegan Hart crashes out

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) has been forced out the Giro d'Italia due to a crash and a broken right clavicle. The British rider was in the break of the day on stage 13 alongside teammate Eddie Dunbar but midway through the stage Geoghegan Hart crashed.

"Sadly we can confirm that @taogeoghegan has been forced to abandon the #Giro after a crash. He is OK and our Team Doctor is with him. A full update will follow," Team Ineos confirmed on Twitter. Shortly after the stage the team confirmed Geoghegan Hart's injury. He will fly home from the race on Saturday.

Geoghegan Hart came into the Giro d'Italia with joint leadership at Team Ineos, which he shared with Pavel Sivakov. The pair were given added responsibility after Egan Bernal crashed and broke his collarbone a week before the start of the race.

Geoghegan Hart had enjoyed an impressive start to the season. He took his first and second wins during the Tour of the Alps, and finished second overall in the Italian stage race, behind Sivakov.

In the Giro, he started brightly with seventh place in the opening time trial in Bologna. He began to slip down the overall standings as the first week went on, and lost time on the stage 9 time trial, which was won by race favourite Primoz Roglic. He came into stage 13 lying 33rd overall.

He crashed twice on stage 3, early in the race.

"I think that he should be ok. We have just arrived and the race was quite crazy," Nicolas Portal told Eurosport at the finish, but before news of the rider's full injuries were known.

"We spoke with the doctor by SMS and he said that Tao was ok, meaning that he was conscious and everything was fine, he thought that maybe it was something to do with his shoulder so he wanted to do a scan in the hospital. It’s a shame to lose Tao, it will affect the group for sure but it is how it is. I’m sure he’ll be back on the bike soon."

"It was a fantastic day for the group. We had Eddie [Dunbar] in the break, so that was our initial tactic. It was perfect because we just had to follow and then at the end, at the bottom of the last climb, we had four riders and the oldest one was 25 years old, with Sebastian Henao. For the future, it’s pretty encouraging snd obviously Pavel was up near the front with Nibali and Roglic, so he was doing his own pace. Chapeau to Ivan for helping him, he helped Pavel to come back and it was a fantastic ride for Pavel. I think all the riders will be proud of him and I think that will help gel them for tomorrow. It’s still the first big day in the mountains, but let’s hope that it stays like this day by day."