After enjoying an excellent Giro d’Italia to date, the luck finally turned bad for the HTC-Highroad team on the rainy stage between Bergamo and Macugnaga. Having won the opening time trial and two stages with Mark Cavendish in the first two weeks of the race, the team lost both Craig Lewis and Marco Pinotti in a crash as the peloton approached the final climb to the finish.
Details are currently limited as to exactly how the incident occurred, but one or more riders appeared to have hit a low sign on an island in the centre of the road. At the speed the peloton was traveling as it was flying towards the base of Macugnaga, and in the weather conditions, it would have been extremely tough to spot.
Lewis could be seen lying in the road with his right leg bent, and was visibly in pain when it was straightened as he was lifted onto a stretcher.
Both riders were transported to the hospital in nearby Domodossola, where x-rays confirmed that they had both suffered fractures.
According to the Giro d’Italia medical team, Pinotti, who comes from just outside Bergamo, has suffered a “composed fracture of the right acetabulum” (the part of the pelvis which meets the ball of the femur to form the joint) and a “contusive trauma of the right shoulder.”
Lewis was the more seriously hurt of the two riders though, sustaining a fracture to his right femur and eighth and ninth ribs on the right side. The American also suffered contusions to his right shoulder area and a deep wound to his left elbow.
Carlos Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli-CIPI), Luca Mazzanti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli), Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana), Tiago Machado (RadioShack) and Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM) also came down in the crash, but all of them were able to continue and finish the stage.
The good news for HTC-Highroad is that Kanstantsin Sivtsov managed to hold on to his fifth place overall, although Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) is now just ten seconds behind him.