Former rider Bradley Wiggins has weighed in on the events of stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia, branding the day a "fiasco" and concluding that "everyone ended up pretty stupid."

Wiggins' comments were made when the 124-km flat stage from Abbiategrasso to Asti was shortened, after the team's Pro Cycling Association (CPA) representative voted in favor of shortening the 258-km stage on Thursday evening, and riders protested This was due to a protest by the riders.

The stage start in Morbegno, near the French border, was a chaotic affair as the riders negotiated with Giro organizers and the UCI commissaires. Eventually, after an 8-km rollout, the peloton boarded a bus for the 130-km journey to a new start point.

Wiggins appeared on Britain's Eurosport midway through the shortened stage, which was eventually won by CCC's Joseph Cerny from a breakaway group, blasting everyone involved in the race and insisting that the riders had a responsibility to entertain the crowd.

"The whole race is a mess. 'In the end, everyone ends up looking like a fool. Obviously, I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who has been retired for four or five years. Let me be clear, when I was a rider, I really didn't want to race.

"But when you look at it from the other side of the fence, you see how privileged it is to be a pro cyclist. The riders are very fortunate and deserve it. In terms of the amount of compensation these days and in the current global climate, cycling is very romantic and for many it is an escape from the tensions and pressures of everyday life, it is a passion"

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"I think riders have a responsibility to ride and that's why they are elite cyclists.

The riders' protests were far from the first complaints in the Giro, as the riders were to tackle the 200km-plus eighth stage in less than three weeks.

Gruppama-FDJ's Jacopo Guarnieri was one of the riders complaining about the enormous travel between stages and the early start, with several riders protesting the Giro's anti-COVID-19 "bubble" status.

Nevertheless, Wiggins added that, in his view, cycling fans and the general public are losing out.

"The riders - with the way they protested like that - there is no unity as usual and nobody seems to know what is going on. The race director [Mauro Veni] threatened that someone will pay for this on Sunday. In the end it is only the public and the viewers who will lose out."

"I can see everyone's point. The riders' argument -- do we need a 258 km stage the day after the Stelvio stage?" Race organizers are happy to shorten a day like tomorrow, which will affect whether riders like Tao Geoghegan Hart, who dropped Wilco Kelderman yesterday, can attack and win.

"This shows a lack of unity among the players, a lack of organization, and a lack of strength as a group. The union is not functioning as a union. Let's call this the "Willie Wave Contest" here."

In addition to criticizing the organization, the Britons, along with race director Mauro Vegni, criticized the riders. Vegni threatened legal action against the riders if they did not show proof that the proposed stage shortening was done by Friday, adding that "someone will pay for this."

Wiggins compared the problems of the athletes to those of soldiers and health care workers, evoking expressions that unfavorably compared the salaries of public sector workers to those of professional athletes.

"Biking 250 kilometers in the rain or not, for six hours, is a bit disproportionate compared to what some people have to do, like those on the front lines of the military or those working in the NHS in the current climate.

"That's why I consider it a privilege. A lot of people sitting in their offices ride bikes on the weekends because of their passion and love for this sport.

"We are lucky to have the Giro d'Italia this year. From that standpoint, we'll make the most of it. We've seen what it's like when there's no race.

Wiggins concluded his statement by opining that the protests of the riders in Morbegno were stronger than the anti-racism statements made by the riders' organization at the Tour de France, where they wore masks with anti-racism messages. [We are protesting stronger today than Kevin Reza and his opposition to racism at the Tour de France. That's it."