An Earned Day of Rest in the Giro D’Italia
Written by playerpress.com, Tuesday May 11 2010
Tuesday was a rest day for the cyclists in the Giro and after crashing through the Dutch countryside for the last two days very few riders will argue that recuperation isn’t welcome. The flat stretch of land that the riders raced on both Sunday and Monday usually offers exciting sprints and numerous pelotons. Instead, strong crosswinds lowered speeds and created handling difficulties that led to a series of crashes. A winner had to crawl out of the wreckage and one did, but not without some controversy.
Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt of team Quick Step finished first on the day. Not bad considering team boss Patrick Lefevere had issued stern criticism of the rider and hinted his days with Quick Step could be numbered. Lefevere may reconsider after Tuesday run of the Giro.
While Lefevere was happier with Weylandt he did draw his share of rebuke from a competitor. HTC-Columbia had spent the day paving the way for their team mate Andre Greipel and thought they had it sewed up when riders like Alessandro Pettacchi and other sprinters were involved in crashes that wiped out entire teams.
Weylandt had managed to drift along with Greipel’s team and when he made his move on the last corner prior to the finish line Weylandt beat him to the punch and crossed first. An angry Greipel dismounted and waved his fist in Weylandt’s face and cursed him for taking advantage of HTC-Columbia’s hard work. Feeling all is fair in love, war and crash marred bike sprints Weylandt happily took the day’s event and felt he simply made the best of a bad situation. Alexander Vinokourov became the new overall leader courtesy of Weylandt’s surprising finish.
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