Robert Gesink crashed on stage 1 and sustained a minor fracture in his hand. He did not start in the 2nd stage, making him the first rider to withdraw from the Giro d’Italia. Something similar happened to Eddie Dunbar a day later, who crashed in stage 2 and did not start the following day. In the course of that day, Simon Carr was forced to pull out with a knee injury. Another designated stage hunter, Biniam Girmay, crashed twice within a few kilometres in stage 4, and he abandoned.
The winner of stage 9, Olav Kooij, and his teammate and leader of the young riders’ classification, Cian Uijtdebroeks, pulled out sick in the stages following the first rest day.
DNS stage 2
173. Robert Gesink (nld – Visma | Lease a Bike)
DNS in stage 3
152. Eddie Dunbar (irl – Team Jayco AlUla)
DNF in stage 3
74. Simon Carr (gbr – EF Education-EasyPost)
DNS in stage 4
148. Bram Welten (nld – Team dsm-firmenich PostNL)
DNF in stage 4
91. Biniam Girmay (eri – Intermarché – Wanty)
218. Torstein Træen (nor – Bahrain Victorious)
DNF in stage 5
96. Adrien Petit (fra – Intermarché – Wanty)
DNS in stage 6
45. Florian Lipowitz (ger – BORA – hansgrohe)
101. Michael Woods (can – Israel – Premier Tech)
104. Riley Pickrell (can – Israel – Premier Tech)
105. Nadav Raisberg (isr – Israel – Premier Tech)
DNS in stage 8
171. Christophe Laporte (fra – Visma | Lease a Bike)
DNS in stage 9
31. Alexey Lutsenko (kaz – Astana Qazaqstan Team)
DNF in stage 9
185. Alexander Krieger (ger – Tudor)
DNS in stage 10
34. Max Kanter (ger – Astana Qazaqstan Team)
109. Ethan Vernon (gbr – Israel – Premier Tech)
174. Olav Kooij (nld – Visma | Lease a Bike)
186. Marius Mayrhofer (ger – Tudor)
DNS in stage 11
22. Louis Barré (fra – Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
51. Stefano Oldani (fra – Cofidis)
176. Cian Uijtdebroeks (bel – Visma | Lease a Bike)
DNS in stage 12
144. Fabio Jakobsen (nld – Team dsm-firmenich PostNL)
DNS in stage 14
213. Phil Bauhaus (ger – Bahrain Victorious)
DNS in stage 15
36. Vadim Pronskiy (kaz – Astana Qazaqstan Team)
DNF in stage 15
84. Clément Davy (fra – Groupama – FDJ)
Paul Laveira was the first rider to abandon last year’s Giro. The Frenchman pulled out in stage 4, two days after he won the KOM jersey from the breakaway. Two big guns on GC did not make it to the finish in Rome. Maglia rosa Remco Evenepoel pulled out after winning the ITT to Cesena, as he tested positive on Covid-19. Number 3 on GC, Tao Geoghegan Hart, crashed out of contention in stage 11.