Uran: The Giro d'Italia isn't over until the last day
Colombian annoyed at time trial losses but recovered from crash
Rigoberto Urán says that although he has recovered from his crash during the Giro d'Italia's stage nine time trial, the irritation at losing a large chunk of time to the other overall contenders still lingers.
The Colombian fell heavily during the Chianti time trial, a day where he was expected to do well given that in a very similar mid-Giro time trial in Barolo in 2014 he took both the stage win and the maglia rosa, leading the Giro d'Italia for four further days.
Sunday was a very different story. Following his crash and time loss, the Cannondale rider slumped to fifteenth overall at 2:56 down on race leader Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep). He is two minutes and three seconds down on widespread Giro d'Italia favourite Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
Speaking to reporters at the stage ten start in Campi Bisenzio on what is set to be a tough day through the Apennine mountains, Urán said that although he's on the mend, the damage to his GC hopes in the 40.5 kilometre Chianti time trial represented a longer-term blow.
"I'm feeling fine and I've recovered," the 29-year-old said. "It was a fall but the actual impact was not as bad as all that, I have a slight swelling on one knee but it's not serious.
"That said, today [stage 10] is a very complicated stage, I've lost a lot of time on the other favourites that I wasn't planning on losing. But we'll go on fighting, there's a lot of the Giro d'Italia left to go and the idea is to be in good shape for the last part of the race."
Second overall in the Giro d'Italia both in 2013 and 2014, Urán recognised that it had been very annoying to, as he put it, "have been in such good shape, up there with the top riders and then to have a crash like that, particularly as I usually go well in the rain and the stage suited me very well.
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"But that kind of thing can happen, we will have to continue fighting. The race isn't over until the last day."
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.