‘It will be a hard night for him’: Pascal Ackermann torn up in final kilometre crash at Giro d’Italia 2019

On a crash marred the 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia into Modena, instead of a sprint royale, Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and others tumbled along the pavement and perhaps out of the race.

Ackermann, in the points leader's ciclamino jeresy, and Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) were among the group crashing under the one-kilometre kite. Both risk not starting stage 11 when it departs from Carpi.

"I just saw [Ackermann], he has some wounds," said Rüdiger Selig.

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"We will see after taking a shower, and then we will decide, but it will be a hard night for him."

Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) won the stage. It was one of the last few chances for the sprinters before the big mountain stages. The crash may have ruined Ackermann's plan to ride through the mountains in his first Grand Tour.

"We try to finish this Giro, his big first Grand Tour, it's also a good step to make a big improvement for the next time for the future," added Selig. "That was the goal, but we have to take a look over him tonight because I think tomorrow will be a tough day for him."

>>> Giro d'Italia 2019 route

Several Trek-Segafredo riders stopped with Matteo Moschetti. The first glance did not look good, he rolled over the finish line bloody and bruised.

"Today Moschetti unfortunately was involved in that last crash," said Giulio Ciccone, who wears the blue mountains jersey.

"All of the team-mates stopped to see the situation, but unfortunately, he went to the hospital in an ambulance, so I think that his Giro is finished here. Let's hope that he's OK and then the rest will be OK."

It appeared Ackermann touched the wheel of the rider in front of him and then fell. It is still unclear.

"He crashed from my back wheel, there was actually not space were I wanted to go, I had to brake really quick and hard and in this moment I recognised it was too close for Acki," said Selig.

"I looked back and he was sitting on the floor so yeah, in this moment I just decided to sprint. It's cycling, eh."

"I don't know," added Ciccone when asked how it happened. "I was behind, but in a sprint these things happen, and the speed was high, not far from the line, so... I don't know what happened, but crashes are part of sprinting."

Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) survived another day in the pink jersey. The Roman hopes to carry the leader's top at least to the end of stage 13 on Friday.

"The first crash around 10km, I was just there, I had to make a move to go around it and it worked, and then in the final, I saw that there was a lot of stress, the riders were fresh because we hadn't gone all out and so everyone wanted to be up there," Conti said.

"In those cases, experience has thought me that it's better to risk it and sit a little bit behind or maybe ahead. This time, I decided to stay behind and it was a good decision."