Pozzato out of Giro d'Italia with broken hand

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Filippo Pozzato has fallen victim to the crash he caused in the finale of Monday's ninth Giro d'Italia stage. The Farnese Vini-Selle Italia captain has a micro-fracture in the scaphoid in his right hand and will not be at the start Tuesday.

Pozzato made a weak attack on the final climb, but was unable to get away. He was still in the mix going into the complicated lead-up to the closing sprint. On the final corner, he slid into Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), sending both of them flying, and taking down a number of other riders as well.

“His hand is so swollen that it is better to give up,” the team said. “Pippo cannot even close his hand and has a lot of pain. If he continued riding, there was too much risk that the situation could deteriorate.”

He will now return to his home in Monaco. The injury is not expected to require surgery and Pozzato said that he is hopeful of being fully fit for the Olympic cycling at the 2012 Games in London this summer. He also revealed that he had chatted to Sky's Mark Cavendish about his role in Monday's crash.

“It’s a pity to leave the Giro, I had the form for winning a stage," Pozzato told Cyclingnews. "Yesterday evening I went to hospital. A fracture was diagnosed on my scaphoid. But I still tried to ride my bike this morning. As I realized that I couldn’t use my brakes or my derailleur, it appeared that I shouldn’t try to continue the Giro. I would have become a danger in the peloton, for myself and for everyone else.

"Speaking with the doctor, I understood that I’d better stop now for the bones to set. It’s also the best way to come back faster. There is an important appointment in August that I wouldn’t like to miss: the road race of the Olympic Games [on July 28]. I yet have to wait for the selection by [Italy’s national coach] Paolo Bettini but we did speak about it and London is a goal. With the directeurs sportifs Luca Scinto and Serge Parsani, we sat down this morning to revise my race program: I’m likely to add the Tour of Slovenia before the Tour of Austria and the Tour of Poland that I already had on my agenda.

"Yesterday after the finish, I took the responsibility for the crash but looking at the images later, it’s Alexander Kristoff who bumped into me and hit my hip on the left. This morning I went to the bus of Team Sky to talk to Mark Cavendish about how it happened really. Crashes happen in our sport.”