Italian Davide Malacarne (Quick Step) has had a major setback to his 2010 season today after crashing in today's Brabantse Pijl. He was making his way through the caravan of cars after a wheel change 30 kilometers into the race, when he found himself on the pavement with a broken right elbow.
"After a flat tire I was returning in the group between the team cars," he explained. "The car in front of me braked suddenly and I couldn't avoid the impact. I'm really sad because my condition was really good and now I have to stop for 4 weeks and I won't ride the Giro d’Italia."
The Giro d'Italia would have been his second Grand Tour participation after last year's edition where he made it to stage 18. The 22-year-old had begun to show his promise in the Volta a Catalunya last month where he rode away from Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) and Luis León Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne) to win stage five.
His biggest result before that was fourth place in last year's Coppa Sabatini, a race that was won by Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto). He also finished second overall and in a stage of the Presidential Tour of Turkey in 2009.
Malacarne remains optimistic about his situation adding, "It’s a big frustration for me. But...life goes on...I will try to find other objectives to stay motivated and return to the races as soon as possible."