After the unfortunate exit of Alberto Lopez de Munain, who crashed in stage two of the Giro d'Italia, Euskaltel-Euskadi almost lost David Lopez in yesterday's fifth stage. After spending much of the day in the breakaway, Lopez crashed with 10 km to go, and looked to be down for the count. But he did manage to remount and finish the stage, 11 minutes behind the winner.
Lopez was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a haematoma on his pelvis and had 13 stitches to his tibia. He will try to start today's 6th stage.
