Scott Davies has been forced to end his season early after breaking his shoulder blade after hitting a guardrail in a nasty crash in Italy.

The Carmarthen-born rider suffered the blow at the Giro dell Emilia near Bologna where he was looking strong until the crash on the slippery, wet roads.

Davies had initially hoped to continue his season – he is in his first full year with the Team Dimension Data World Tour outfit – but will now call it a day for 2018.

 

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Davies has been racing in Italy in recent weeks since impressing on the Tour of Britain where he led the King of the Mountains category in the early days.

The former Towy Riders graduate had been part of the early breakaway in the race in Bologna on Saturday, joining seven other riders in a move that gained just over 10-minutes on the peloton at one point.

And despite the crash, Davies still chased back to the front group and was one of the final three riders from the early break to be caught by an attacking Alessandro De Marchi in the final 20km of the 209km race.

The BMC rider went on to win the stage with Davies crossing the line just over 11 minutes down.

The 23-year-old prospect, speaking before he called time on the season, said: “It was a bit of mixed day for me in the end.

“I managed to make the break of the day but I crashed on the descent after about 125km. I just over-cooked the corner and ended up in the guardrail.

“I managed to get back to the break and hung in there until the final two laps, so that was a positive. The crash aside, I felt like I had really good legs so I hope I have some form that’ll bode well for these last few races of the season.

“I’m just hoping I can get my shoulder sorted first, it took a bit of knock in the crash.”