Gerdemann breaks leg

A bad crash in the time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico left Linus Gerdemann (High Road) with a broken femur. He told radsport-news.com that he will have surgery on Monday, in Innsbruck/Austria and is likely out of competition for six weeks. This may also dampen his hopes for the Tour de France.

The German had just passed Danilo Di Luca, who started one minute before him, when he touched the barriers in a corner and did a somersault. The crash happened less than two kilometres from the finish. He also hit and badly bruised his tibia on the curb. After the race, the High Road rider was taken away in an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

He said that "when I checked out the course beforehand, I thought I could ride it on the handle bar [in the time trial position - ed.] I was going about 60km/h and somehow slipped."

Doubly bad luck for Gerdemann was fact that he seemed to be en route to winning the race. "Based on the intermediate times I probably would have finished second to Cancellara. That would have been enough for overall victory. And that without real preparation." Gerdemann had a 30-second lead over Cancellara going into the time trial. Eventual runner-up, David Zabriskie (Slipstream Chipotle - H30) ended the race 22 seconds behind the Swiss rider. Gerdemann did manage to get up and finish the race, 1'16 behind Cancellara.

Tirreno-Adriatico will end on Tuesday.