Van Heeswijk not yet retiring

After a hard day in the mountains in the Giro's sixth stage, finishing in the last group over 17 minutes down, Rabobank's Max van Heeswijk was about ready to throw in the towel. Saturday morning things looked different and he had changed his mind, deciding he could continue to cope with his asthma.

"I have bad news," he wrote on his website maxvanheeswiJk.nl Friday evening, according to wieleruitslagen.be. "I will talk to my doctor one more time and hope that he can do something with my airways, otherwise I will retire after this season. This sport is hard enough when you are healthy. I had hoped to keep riding two more years, but that is no longer possible."

By Saturday the 34 year-old Dutch rider had changed his mind. The earlier, more negative entry on his website had been removed, and a new one inserted.

"In response to various media reports that said that I was thinking of stopping, I would like to say the following: After yesterday's hard mountain stage where I had problems with my asthma, I probably reacted too quickly and too impulsively in saying that I would stop racing if I couldn't get over it quickly. I regret the confusion this has caused," he wrote.