Jhonatan Narváez exits Giro d'Italia during stage 19

Jhonatan Narváez, a triple stage winner, forced out of the Giro d'Italia during stage 19. Narváez, who had won three stages and was in the running for the points classification until Thursday, dropped from the main peloton just 20km into Friday's 151km queen stage. He pulled up alongside the UAE Team Emirates car and was in discussion with his team directors. \n\nTelevision footage showed that Narváez had a bloodied index finger on his right hand, although the source of the injury remained unclear. He had a plaster on another of his fingers. His abandonment from the race was soon announced and confirmed over race radio. UAE Team Emirates later clarified that Narváez had crashed not during Friday's queen stage but while returning to the bus after stage 18. "Unfortunately, Jhonatan Narváez was forced to abandon in the early part of stage 19 at the Giro d'Italia," a post from the team stated. \n\n"Yesterday, the Ecuadorian suffered a small crash on the transfer back to the bus which left him in some discomfort on the challenging terrain today. He goes home with three stage wins in the vault and two stints in the ciclamino. Get well soon, Jhony!" Narváez had a successful Giro, winning the reduced bunch sprint into Cosenza on stage 4 and scoring two triumphs from breakaways – the first a solo effort in the finale of stage 8 and the second by out-sprinting Enric Mas at the end of stage 11. \n\nHis success put him right in the mix for the points classification, trading the ciclamino jersey with the leading sprinter, Paul Magnier. Narváez seized the jersey from Magnier after scoring points at the intermediate sprint on stage 14 and regained it again on stage 17. However, despite Narváez's threat to keep targeting the intermediates, Magnier seemingly sealed the classification with his victory on stage 18. \n\nNarváez’s withdrawal left UAE Team Emirates with only four riders in the Giro, following several withdrawals earlier in the race. The team lost Jay Vine and Marc Soler on stage 2 and their GC leader, Adam Yates, on stage 3, having already seen their planned leader, João Almeida, unable to start the race.