Bad luck continues for Brown

Graeme Brown (l) with Mat Hayman (Image credit: Gennie Sheer)

After narrowly missing out on stage wins at this year's Giro d'Italia, Graeme Brown was forced to withdraw following a crash early in stage 7 from Cesena to Saltara. It continues a bad run of luck Brown has experienced in recent times, with the Australian coming down for the fifth time in a matter of weeks, as Les Clarke reports.

"I crashed after about 15 kilometres of the stage," said Brown. "One of the T-Mobile guys [Andre Korff - ed.] was looking around and I crashed into him." The crash brought down a number of riders, as Brown explained, and this latest accident has him baffled as to why he's been having so much bad luck lately. "That's my fifth [crash] in a few weeks," said Brown before he added with a laugh, "I'm trying to tell what I've done wrong to get all this bad luck!"

This latest accident means Brown's racing program will change, and a planned mid-season break in Australia may be foregone to concentrate on getting his season back on track. "The original plan was to do another week of the Giro before I headed back to Australia for a break to just freshen up and get set for the rest of the season," said Brown, "But now I may not be able to do that - I don't really mind, though," he added.