Pfannberger crashes out of Giro

Barloworld's Christian Pfannberger went into the Giro d'Italia hoping for a stage win. But he ended his Giro during the 15th stage, suffering from bronchitis and the multiple scrape wounds from his multiple crashes. Instead of the desired stage win, he could point back to three accidents.

"After the first crash, I was angry, because I was going for the win," he told LaOla1.at. "The second one was a real cracker, at 60km/h. That was pretty big, but I'm sure I would have gotten good 'artistic' scores," the Austrian said, proving he hadn't lost his sense of humour. "After the third one, it was over."

The Giro has been a disappointment for his team. Both he and co-captain Juan Mauricio Soler had to drop out during the race. "It has been a race for nothing so far. Our Giro brought us so much bad luck, it is hard to believe."

It was his first Grand Tour, but, he hoped, not his last. He thinks he can do well in such a long race. "From the beginning, I have always been one to train longer and harder than the others. So I really belive that I can stand up to the problems in the third week. But now I am at home in the third week..."

Pfannberger's plans for the immediate future are first of all to recover, "and then I will clear up my further race planning with the team. I will probably take a longer break from racing." (SW)