Riccò and Bettini clarify Passo della Futa incident

Riccardo Riccò and World Champion Paolo Bettini met yesterday before the start of stage nine to discuss what exactly happened in stage eight, where the young Saunier Duval rider was briefly in the power-escape that stayed clear to the finish.

That Sunday Riccò left the escape to the dismay of his team and, thus, put the yellow boys on the offensive to pull back the move that could have far-reaching GC consequences. "I should have stayed up front and pulled. It was an error of inexperience," the 23 year-old clarified on the team bus to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Has it passed? No, it has not yet passed and tomorrow I will vent my anger on the climb," continued Riccò, referring to today's stage that finishes with the 8.8-kilometre climb to Santuario Nostra Signora della Guardia.

"It was a very interesting escape but with Riccò it would not work," said the World Champ who met with Riccò in the Saunier team bus. "Maybe he made a mistake of inexperience."

"We were going all out and there was not time to talk," continued Riccò. "Like I said yesterday, no one said anything to me but it was the actions. I am young and maybe I made some mistakes," Riccò added, sitting next to Bettini.

It was a light atmosphere on the team bus. "May I have a caffè corretto, with Grappa!?" Bettini joked. Gilberto Simoni gave Bettini a pastry with chocolate and the caffè, un-corrected, came from Leonardo Piepoli.