With a hard crash in the final of stage two, coupled with a collision before he traveled to Italy, Martijn Tusveld had a tough start to the Giro d’Italia. He suffered multiple wounds all over his body, which required much care over the last week from the teams medical staff. Martijn fought hard in the hope he could pull through and come back to shape in the second week, helping Team DSM with their goals and to defend the pink jersey for five days. Unfortunately, Martijn succumbed to his injuries from that early crash today and had to step off his bike halfway through the stage.
Tusveld said: “After my crash last week I said that I really wanted to finish the Giro and I’m really disappointed to not be able to do that. I hoped I could pull through in a good way and come into the second week feeling better, but my injuries are still really bothering me. After the rest day I still don’t feel good, so the sensible thing to do is take some rest and recover for the upcoming period.”
Matt Winston added: “Martijn has had a difficult start to the race and the strength and determination he’s shown to pull through is a real testament to him. He’s done a great job still working to defend our pink jersey for the last week, and we’d hoped he would come out of the rest day in much better shape. Unfortunately that’s not been the case. We will miss him here and hope to see him back in action again soon.”
Team DSM doctor Anko Boelens continued: “Martijn is still recovering from the numerous wounds sustained in stage two. We’ve been monitoring him closely over the last week and hoped to see some improvement, but today he ran out of energy in the difficult conditions. Now he’ll head back home and with some good rest we are sure he’ll be back in action soon.”
