Luke Roberts witnesses birth of daughter via Skype before Giro d'Italia stage

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The miracles of modern technology allowed Luke Roberts to witness the birth of his second daughter in Germany before taking to the start of the tenth stage of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday. The Saxo Bank rider said he hopes to meet his newest family member on next week's rest day.

“The phone rang at 6 o'clock this morning as my wife was close to giving birth and I was actually able to follow the birth via Skype,” he said on the team's website. “They're both well and naturally we're proud and happy parents and it took a few kilometres to get my head back in the race but there was a job to be done.

“It's not going to affect the race for my part and I'm hoping to be able to see all my three girls on the rest day.”

He finished the stage in Assisi as 94th, 3:49 down.

The 35-year-old Australian turned pro with Team ComNet in 2002, and has also ridden for Teams CSC, Kuota and Milram. He had signed with the Pegasus project for 2011, but when that fell through, he signed with Saxo Bank.

Roberts won a gold medal for the team pursuit at the 2004 Olympics.