Tough weekend for Belgian teams

It was a rough-and-tumble weekend for the two Belgian ProTour teams. Almost the entire Silence-Lotto team went down in the team time trial of the Tour du Pologne, while in the Vuelta a España, Wouter Weylandt of Quick Step tumbled down a ravine.

In Poland, the race opened with a four-kilometre team time trial. Seven out of eight Silence-Lotto riders went down at once during the race, with Jurgen Van Den Broeck suffering the worst damage. He broke a collarbone and was scheduled to fly home Monday morning for surgery. Dario Cioni also crashed, and suffered cuts and scraps over his entire body.

Down in Spain, Weylandt was happy to come away with only scrapes, sore knees and a good scare. On Saturday's stage to the Angliru, the 23 year-old missed a turn on the descent of the Alto de Colladona and went 15 metres down the ravine. His fall was broken by a tree and he was able to scramble back up to the road.

"I don't know how far I fell but it wasn't easy to climb back up," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "I hurt both my knees but I am just happy to be here now to tell you this." After the crash, he got back on the bike and finished the stage as 126th, 20.52 minutes down.