Giro Stage 3 ; "that" crash

I was relieved that our coverage didn't dwell on the Wouter Weylandt dedication - it went straight from a catch-up of Stage 2 to the start line of today's race, with the RadioShack team standing at the front of the race.  David Harmon, our commentator, barely had time to mention the act of remembrance before the race was under way.

I do hope that Wouter Weylandt will be remembered, but for now, it's time to move on. Particularly as, towards the end of the race, we were told that the Mayor of Horsens had actually had a heart attack and died during the early, "fun" family cycle ride along the course, which is absolutely awful for all concerned. Well, there are a couple of hundred of kids who will never go on a fun ride again...

During the moderately uneventful stage, questions were being asked on Twitter about the preparation of the jerseys: David Harmon confirmed that there is a van behind the podium, filled with shelves stacked with iron-on transfers for every team in the race. The minute the results are confirmed, they take a jersey of the right size and colour, pull out the team sponsor stickers, shove it under the heat press and voila! a fully logo-ed jumper.  I had been wondering about this, on and off, for months, so it's good to have confirmation. He also mentioned the overnight spraying of bikes and helmets. Now, what about the skin-suit issue? Or the natty spotty shorts? What about my speculations concerning the grey van with the generator and the sewing machine in it? No answers today, Schlecklanders: I did tweet the question to David Harmon, but he either ignored it or didn't see it.

And going back to the podium jerseys for a moment, that is why the zip is at the back, in case you hadn't realised: so that the sponsor/team logo can be clearly seen across the front. No, it's not for the convenience of the podium girlies after all.

At 44k to go, we decide it's time for cheesy biscuits. here they are, for all of you who have been asking:

This is LLB demonstrating the "total block".  You will remember that the game involves total silence, and never looking down at the bowl, which sits on the sofa between us. So I will reach out, and find a Hand in this position, and if I try to get between the fingers - as always, silently and without looking - LLB moves them around to prevent me getting any biscuits.

Today a new tactic appeared: LLB's hand appeared, upside down in the bowl, cupped, and when my questing fingers tapped on his palm, he said "oh dear, bowl's empty."

How beastly.

To make up for it, I was offered one of the biscuits:

Yes, it was a heart-shaped one. All together now - d'aaaw!

Once they were all gone, the new Wombat appeared to check that we hadn't missed any:

Right! Back to the cycling!

At 25k to go, I spotted three Shack jerseys up near the front, and I'm pretty sure Frankie was one of them - it was hard to tell, we had a lot of helicopter shots this time. Helicopter shots are excellent for watching team tactics, and the interplay of colours within the peloton, but not so good for picking out individuals.

The three jerseys increased to four, then up to 6, and then - big excitement - 7!! Good groupage, boys.

At 19k to go, with a strange feeling of deja vu, Lars Bak pinged off the front again, and stormed his way off to a massive lead of, ooh, 34 seconds or so. But it was enough to get him huge cheers from the Danish crowds, and we all know that SaxoBank could do with the sponsor time, as they are still a bit lacking in the UCI points department. Talking of which, UCI, would you kindly update your website? It hasn't been done since 29th April.

At 14k to go, we are in the final lap and Lars Bak has been caught by the peloton, but he looks happy, and he has certainly done his bit for the home crowd.

And as for the end? Well, I think we all know what happened: Ferrari of team Androni was sprinting for the line and veered off to the right, taking out Cav's front wheel. Cav went down very heavily, losing a lot of skin, and of course the domino effect then took out several other riders, and held up most of the rest of the peloton.

Worst hit was Taylor Phinney - who is not having a good time in pink - who looked for a while as though he'd broken his ankle, and was - we thought - taken off by ambulance. However, he was later described as having made it across the finish line, then taken to the podium by ambulance. Hmm, I think there may be some fudging there, as the rules say that to complete a stage and be allowed to continue the race, a rider and his bike must cross the finish line unaided.  But who cares, he deserves a little bit of leniency. He gets the same time as everyone else, which is why he keeps the pink, but apparently he is booked in as coming in last, according to the UCI rules.

Kudos to the Farnese rider who bunny-hopped over Cav as he lay in the road: and rather less praise to the Shack rider who apparently rode over the fallen Cav's legs!



I'm very impressed that both Phinney and Cav have been very grown-up about it: I was almost expecting fireworks from Cav, but as we saw, he picked himself up off the ground, picked up his bike and put it on his shoulder, and walked calmly up to the finish line. Lots of time to cool off, and he was pretty cool on Twitter later, too:

"Crashing at 75kph isn't nice. Nor is Ferrari's manoeuvre. Should be ashamed to take out pink, red & world champ jerseys." 

and a little later:

"Is the team of Roberto Ferrari or the UCI going to do the right thing? Other riders, including myself, have been sent home for much less." 

Well, no, they aren't: Ferrari was relegated to last place in the peloton - 192nd - and a teeny tiny fine, loss of points, and - well, that's about it, to be honest.  His team manager has sort-of apologised, saying “We very much regret what happened and apologise to Mark Cavendish on behalf of Roberto Ferrari and the whole team.  It was absolutely not a deliberate move; Roberto saw the wheel of Farrar and tried to follow him, not realising that Mark Cavendish was right behind him.”

However, Ferrari himself was completely defiant about it, saying: "I didn't know who was behind me. In a sprint, I look straight ahead. I don't preoccupy myself with what's going on behind me." 

What a rat.  

All he has to do is include the magic word "sorry" at some point, and all will be well, but if he maintains this position, well, I see an elbow in his future. And a ditch. Hopefully at a moment when both Cav and Phinney are back at their respective team cars.  Pity that Vladimir Karpets isn't in the race, he's brilliant at putting riders into ditches - remember what happened to Contador in the Tour last year? Conti tried to barge Karpets across the road at one point, and Karpets - who is a solid rider - didn't budge an inch: if I remember right, there was a little bit of elbow action and whump! Conti on his backside in a ditch. Conti later apologised, acknowledging that he had tried to muscle his way in to Karpets' road space.

Come on Ferrari, man and apologise, otherwise you are going to be elbowed from all sides for the rest of this race.

And Androni might possibly find themselves on the "unwanted" list for wildcard invitations.

So that was the exciting end to Stage 3: Giacomo came in 15th,  EEEBennati 25th,  Frankie 38th (thank heaven he didn't come in 108th again!) even Ben Hermans finished: he came in 128th, but with the same time as the peloton, so that's a result.

Overall, RadioShack are sitting in 4th place in the Team Standings, and there is plenty of time to go yet. Today - Tuesday - is the rest day, and tomorrow will be the TTT, then we are back to more flat stages, and the possibility of repercussions for nasty Mr Ferrari!