Three-time stage winner Narváez abandons Giro

Jhonatan Narváez has abandoned the Giro d'Italia early on stage 19, feeling the effects of a small crash while riding back to the bus after the previous stage, his team reports.

The Ecuadorian national champion has been one of the race's key animators since UAE Team Emirates was eviscerated in the stage 2 crash, losing Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler. With his team's goals turned upside down, Narváez and his four remaining teammates shifted their attention to stage wins. The first to take victory was young Igor Arrieta, but Narváez then racked up no less than three wins of his own by the end of the second week. That hit rate set up one of the storylines of the third week as Narváez posed a threat to the maglia ciclamino_,_ until then dominated by sprinter Paul Magnier. However, that battle seemed to come to a close on stage 18 with Magnier's third victory.

Narváez's departure leaves just four UAE riders in Italy: stage 5-winner Arrieta, Mikkel Bjerg, Jan Christen and António Morgado.