{"id":698142,"date":"2026-05-27T15:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698142\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:52:15","slug":"nick-zukowsky-forced-to-abandon-giro-ditalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698142\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Zukowsky forced to abandon Giro d\u2019Italia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah man, bummer news today from Italy. Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Que.\u2019s Nick Zukowsky<\/a> had to leave the Giro d\u2019Italia midway during Stage 17, just a few days after his nasty crash in Milan.<\/p>\n

Apparently the Pinarello 36.5 rider was suffering from sore ribs and having a hard time breathing. The former national champion went down Sunday after the Enrico Zanoncello headbutt-but-maybe-not-headbutt incident took down Brit Robert Donaldson. Zuke was right behind and had nowhere to go.<\/p>\n

\u274c \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Nickolas Zukowsky has left the #GirodItalia<\/a><\/p>\n

We wish him a speedy recovery!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Giro d\u2019Italia (@giroditalia) May 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

After the crash he told Canadian Cycling Magazine that he was \u201cObviously, pretty banged up. Feels like I got hit by a truck. But yeah, all in all, I\u2019m just so grateful that nothing\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was in the mix in the finale working for team sprinter David Gonz\u00e1lez in a reduced bunch after many of the pure sprinters and domestiques weren\u2019t in the group. He was trying to help with the leadout when disaster struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith about 1 km to go, I kind of made my move with him on my wheel. So we shot up the right side of the bunch,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the moment that I was kind of coming past Donaldson he went down literally a centimetre in front of me. One second I was leading out David Gonz\u00e1lez, and then I went from moving up to flying and hitting the deck at 65 km\/h in like a blink of an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initial scans seemed positive. \u201cI was really, really banged up and quite hurt,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know the extent of my injuries because I got going so fast and slid for what felt like forever on the pavement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his ribs may not be broken, bruised ones are super painful in general, let alone if you\u2019re riding in one of the biggest races in the world. He did manage to finish Tuesday\u2019s brutal Stage 16, which seemed promising that he was OK. Unfortunately, with 118 km to go, Zuke called it quits. Hopefully he will heal up soon. The 27-year-old is a tough rider, so if he had to abandon, you can imagine he was in quite a bit of pain.<\/p>\n