André Greipel (OmegaPharma-Lotto) will not start today’s second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico after crashing in the warm-up before the Marina di Carrara team time trial yesterday. The German sprinter hit his head on the tarmac, causing the area around his eye to swell, making it impossible to start the 202km stage between Carrara and Indicatore (Arezzo).
“His eye socket is badly swollen and his eye is totally shut,” said OmegaPharma-Lotto sports director Dirk De Wolf. “In these conditions, it would be irresponsible to allow him to carry on!”
Greipel was dropped by the rest of the OmegaPharma-Lotto team on the flat, 16.8km course, as he was unable to hold the pace set by his teammates. The Belgian team finished a reasonable 41 seconds behind winners Rabobank, but Greipel lost a further 1’19”, finishing 2 minutes down on the day.
The withdrawal of Greipel means that his long awaited grudge match with former HTC-Highroad teammate Mark Cavendish has been delayed by a crash once more. The clash was due to happen in the Santos Tour Down Under, the very first major race of the year, but the Manxman hit the deck on stage two, preventing him from sprinting for the rest of the race.
Both riders have had a fairly quiet start to the season with Cavendish taking the final stage of the Tour of Oman, and Greipel winning the fourth stage of the Volta ao Algarve.