Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) rolls into the finish line after crashing in the sprint(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) crashes in the sprint to the stage 7 finish line(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Andrew Talansky is affectionately nicknamed Pit-bull by his Garmin-Sharp team and his character and aggression came out after he crashed hard in sight of the finish of stage 7 of the Tour de France.
The American appeared to touch wheels with Australian national champion Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreneEdge) and landed hard, at speed, on his left side and shoulder.
He got up and finished the stage but watched the replay of the crash on a big screen just after the finishline. He vented his angry against Gerrans as he rode to the Garmin-Sharp team bus with team chiropractor Matt Rabin.
"He took me, he can’t do that. Do you think that's acceptable? I was pulling out the way and he took me down," Talansky shouted to Rabin several times as they weaved around other riders in the chaos of the finish area.
He then eased near the Orica-GreenEdge bus to further vent his anger and then rode on towards the Garmin-Sharp bus. After a few moments inside the bus he came out to warm down on the rollers. Directeur sportif Robbie Hunter, team doctor Prentice Steffen and team manager Jonathan Vaughters all spoke to him but he remained angry as replays of the crash were shown on the giant Sharp television on the side of the bus.
The media waited outside the bus but Talansky did not speak and the Garmin-Sharp team opted to treat him on the bus and keep him on the bus, away from the media.
As the team buses left the finish area, the Orica-GreenEdge bus pulled up alongside the Garmin-Sharp bus and Simon Gerrans insisted he did not cause the crash on purpose and said he would call Talansky. Vaughters thanked him for the gesture and directeur sportif Andreas Klier suggested the two riders talked before the start of stage eight on Saturday morning.
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Because Talansky crashed inside the final three kilometres of the stage, he did not loose any time and actually moved up to seventh overall, 2:05 behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
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).
