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Ciolek misses out due to another crash in Vuelta

published 3 September 2009

German having no luck repeating stage two victory

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The Milram boys lost their captain, Gerald Ciolek in the finale. (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)

Milram's Gerald Ciolek had another run-in with bad luck in the finale of the Vuelta a Espana's fifth stage, falling victim to the second crash in as many stages. This time he went down in the final sprint, which was won by Columbia-HTC's Andre Greipel.

"There were a lot of narrow streets and a small climb before the finish, and we lost ourselves a bit," said Ralf Grabsch, Directeur Sportif for Team Milram.

"If there had still been two riders with Gerald Ciolek, then the final kilometer would have been optimal. As it was, he was alone. As a team we weren't attentive enough and we let Gerald down. We want to learn from this mistake and will talk about it, so that we can be successful again tomorrow."

Ciolek won the first road stage of the Spanish tour on Sunday, outsprinting Liquigas' Fabio Sabatini and Roger Hammond (Cervelo TestTeam), but has so far not had any luck in repeating that performance. In stage three, he finished a distance 19th behind winner Greg Henderson (Columbia-HTC). On Tuesday's rainy finish in Liège, he fell victim to two separate crashes, one within the final 3km.