Dan Martin looking dazed on the tarmac in a wet Belfast after a sunken manhole cover took him out of the three week Giro d'Italia just 15 minutes into the race (Photo: Sirotti)
The Giro d’Italia has gotten off to perhaps the worst possible start for Ireland’s chances in the race, with mountain stage win favourite and overall contender Dan Martin crashing in the team time trial in Belfast this evening.
Martin appeared to slip on a manhole cover that was a little sunken in the road, creating a slight pothole effect. The road was also greasy at the time, a factor that did not help his chances of staying upright.
When he came off he was fourth last in the Garmin-Sharp line, with the three riders behind slamming into him and all falling. They included Nathan Haas, Koldo Fernandez and Andre Cardoso.
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While the others picked themselves up off the ground after a prolonged period and limped to the finish, Martin did not recovery.
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He failed to remount and was left clutching his elbow in an apparent effort to nurse a suspected broken collar bone.
His Garmin Sharp squad were barely 15 minutes into this evening’s test when disaster struck as they were going flat out on a straight stretch of road with approximately 10 minutes or racing remaining.
That's an absolutely bitter blow for Martin, who looked to be in fantastic form and was targeting a stage win and the overall.
Stickybottle understands Martin was in hospital for X-rays at the time of writing but his team mate and 2012 race winner Ryder Hesjedal said the crash was a nightmare for the squad.
“Obviously there was a crash, and there was only four of us that stayed ahead,” he said.
“It was right before a corner and you hear something had happened, we were already through the corner, looked back and there was nobody there.
“Obviously it was pretty scary because you don’t know what the hell’s going on."
In better news, Philip Deignan of Team Sky and Nicolas Roche of Saxo-Tinkoff got around the course 21.7km course safely, with their teams finishing 5th and 4th respectively.
