The nervous second stage of the Volta a Catalunya featured several crashes and broken bones, including the withdrawal of two riders due to broken collarbones.
Alberto Losada was one unfortunate crash victim. On the final descent, about 12km from the finish, Losada crashed and broke his right collarbone. The Caisse d'Epargne racer is expected to undergo an operation at the Clinic Dexeus of Barcelona, Spain.
Karpin Galicia's Ezequiel Mosquera was another downed rider forced to withdraw from the race. He suffered a broken collarbone and index finger. Director Sportif Álvaro Pino explained what happened, "The fall took place when Ezequiel looked back and touched his front wheel to the parapet of the edge of the highway and crashed to the ground. Despite this, he has been lucky because it was possible to have fallen off a precipice. The collarbone fracture in principle seems clean, and they have fixed the index finger, and we are hopeful until we know the true extent of the fractures."
Other racers were affected, but with less serious consequences, by the conditions at the end of the race where riders tackled narrow, curvy roads.
"There was a very dangerous descent after the final climb and a lot of riders crashed, which meant a serious separation of the peloton. There were a lot of turns and many of them were gravelled so it was not a good scenario," said Team CSC Sports Director Dan Frost after the stage according to team-csc.com.
"...Our guys took it easy on the descent in order to avoid crashes, which luckily we did – but of course we paid the price because we had to slow down," said Frost referring to his team's results for the stage.
Two riders Christophe Riblon (AG2r) and Alexandre Botcharov (Caisse d'Epargne) were left with a narrow lead in the race leading the race going into the final climb. The pair held a 2'50" lead on a much reduced peloton, but a crash on a gravel-strewn turn took both of them down on a technical descent. They were eventually caught and Cyril Dessel went on to stage victory.
See Cyclingnews' full coverage of stage two of the Volta a Catalunya.
