Stefano Garzelli's season looks like it could be over, just as he was coming around to take aim at the end of season Italian Classics. Garzelli crashed in the Tre Valli Varesine, the first race of the Trittico Lombardo. The race, won by Garmin's Dan Martin, is right in Garzelli's backyard, but that didn't prove to be of much help when the Italian favorite suffered a nasty crash and was taken to the hospital with a suspected broken wrist and facial injuries.
The hospital, however, showed that this year's winner of the Plan de Corones time trial at the Giro was actually just fine in the wrist. His face was another story though - he broke both of his cheekbones. Liquigas-Doimo's Alessandro Vanotti was also involved in the wreck and his run-in with the pavement resulted in a broken collarbone.
The injury looks to likely end yet another successful season for the 38 year old former Giro d'Italia winner. Garzelli has been able to defy age with startling ease - his 2010 campaign has been highlighted by overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico as well as the win on one of the most difficult climbs in all of cycling, Plan de Corones. The native of Varese, if anything, seems to have improved as the years have gone by (with that lone Giro victory in 2000 serving as a perfect exception). Things have gone so well in fact, that Garzelli recently inked a deal with his Acqua e Sapone team to continue for another two years.