Alessandro Petacchi's precious teammate Marco Velo has broken his right collarbone in a crash at the Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt today. Just as the supersprinter scored his third consecutive stage win at the race, Velo crashed in the bunch sprint just before the finish line.
"I led out the sprint as always, and when Alessandro came off my wheel there were about 150 metres left," Velo said. "Hondo, who got second, passed me with about 100 metres to go, so I decided to continue to take a placing home. Unfortunately, at about 50 metres to the line, I got rammed and went down. I don't know what exactly happened, but I do know that I slid until 40 metres after the finish line. I'm really unhappy and sad because this means that I will have to skip the Giro."
