López apologies to Oomen after bidon incident on Blockhaus

Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) held onto the Giro d'Italia lead by 12 seconds on stage 9
Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) held onto the Giro d'Italia lead by 12 seconds on stage 9 (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

When the first Giro d'Italia racers reached the summit of the Blockhaus on Sunday and journalists at the finish line poured onto the finish area to grab instant reactions, just one figure remained glued to the TV screen in the suddenly completely empty media enclosure.

Trek-Segafredo press officer Paolo Barbieri was waiting patiently for Giro d'Italia maglia rosa Juan Pedro López to cross the line to see whether the Spaniard, who had fallen behind with some eight kilometres still to climb, had managed to retain the lead that he had been so widely predicted to lose.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.