Team CSC suffered a double blow on the Giro d'Italia's third stage, losing Bradley McGee and Stuart O'Grady to injury. The team's Australian duo were involved in a crash on the 221 kilometre stage to Milazzo.
Both Olympic champion McGee and 2007 Paris-Roubaix winner O'Grady suffered a broken collarbone as a result of the accident. While McGee immediately withdrew from the event, O'Grady continued on to finish the stage eight minutes behind but will not start tomorrow's fourth stage.
"Today was a real downer for us," admitted CSC sports director Kim Andersen. "First of all we had several riders involved in the crashes but mostly because of the two broken collar bones of course.
"It's a great loss to have to do without Bradley and Stuart because they've both been extremely valuable for us in our fight for a good overall position in this race," he added.
The outfit suffered another blow with Chris Anker Sørensen losing 35 seconds on the stage following a crash. While Sørensen wasn't physically injured in the incident it has hurt the rider's general classification hopes.
"Chris was in two crashes which meant he lost time which was a real shame," said Andersen. "This just goes to show how thin the line is between having great success to hitting rock bottom.
"But now we have to focus on gathering up the pieces and get on with it – especially for Chris' sake," added Andersen.
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The top placed rider from the Danish team is Nicki Sørensen (Team CSC), who holds sixth place 17 seconds behind general classification leader Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas). Gustav Erik Larsson holds 12th place a further 11 seconds adrift while Sørensen is now 44 seconds behind Pellizotti in 26th spot.
Other riders caught up in Stage 3's mass crash included Saunier Duval-Scott's Riccardo Riccò and Eros Capecchi. Both riders have undergone X-rays and been cleared to ride, with Riccò dislocating a finger on his left hand while Capecchi's suspected broken collarbone turned out to be muscle injury.
