Brent Bookwalter's crash was captured via Twitter(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)
The USA's Brent Bookwalter (BMC) took a tumble during training in Belfast, just a few hours before he is due to line-up in the opening team time trial stage of the Giro d'Italia.
The 22 teams in this year's Giro d'Italia were allowed to study the route of the 21.7km on closed roads. The BMC team had just completed a first lap of the course and was fortunately riding slowly when Bookwalter hit a traffic cone.
He went down hard but explained that apart from some pain in his knee, he was uninjured.
"It was between our first and second laps out," he explained.
"We were riding back to the start and fortunately we were going at slow speed all together and assessing and discussing our first lap. The rider in front of me shielded my vision from an orange cone and I ran straight into it. Fortunately I was going slow and had a lot clothes on, so that absorbed most of the damage. My knee is a little sore but I think I'll be okay to get out there and after it this afternoon."
Bookwalter is one of just two US riders in this year's Giro d'Italia. He is part of a strong BMC team that is expected to play a key role in helping Cadel Evans target overall victory.
Also in the BMC squad are Yannick Eijssen, Evans, Ben Hermans, Steve Morabito, Daniel Oss, Manuel Quinziato, Samuel Sánchez and Danilo Wyss.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
