By Susan Westemeyer
"That has never before happened to me in my whole career," he wrote on his website, bertgrabsch.de. "I climbed down from my bike and marched 100 metres by foot up the Montelupone. The cause was the crash of a motorcycle directly in front of our group. I had to get off and decided just to continue walking. It was a bad mountain. But it was fun to walk up it. I took this premiere with humour."
It's a good thing he kept his sense of humour. "Actually, Tirreno-Adriatico was supposed to be my first season highlight." But since he was recovering from a severe sinus infection, he knew things wouldn't go as planned. "Things went well on the flat, but I just wasn't strong enough on the climbs. I had especially hoped for a better result than 18th in the time trial. I was disappointed, but knew that I couldn't expect any miracles."
Grabsch's next race will be next Monday, Rund um Köln.
