“I have road rash, but I think there’s worse stuff, too. My hip and ribs hurt. Fuck, everything hurts”
-Robbie McEwen
Big crash at the Scheldeprijs today, with, in the words of Sporza’s writeup, riders going down like “dominoblokjs”. The English (sort of) translation has some great lines, with McEwen saying Van Avermaet was “drunk” with excitement at being on Petacchi’s wheel, Boonen saying something about McEwen and a “prick”, and Van Avermaet crediting his relative lack of injury to fall cross-training as a goalkeeper.
Anyone who can actually read that, instead of relying on a hilarious computer-based translation, should feel more than welcome to leave a translation in the comments section.
The crash must have been especially painful for McEwen, since he’s really been searching for a big win this season, and was right on Petacchi’s wheel at the critical juncture, after the Italian had been out in the wind for a while. The Aussie tried to blame Van Avermaet, but I think it’s pretty clear from the video that the initial contact in the crash was an unavoidable touch of wheels between Petacchi and the Lotto rider, that cause the latter to then tumble into McEwen.
I don’t think it was an “unavoidable touch of wheels” by Van Avermaet. Watching the slo-mo section of the video HQ and clicking pause-play several times, it seems fairly clear – to me anyway – that Van Avermaet moved to his right much more than necessary and rather abruptly.
If you can manage to stop the video at exactly 0:53, you will see that Van Avermaet has moved to the right side of Petacchi’s wheel. Almost immediately after, he rides into McEwen and causes the crash.
Sometimes, McEwen rides overly aggressive in a sprint. But in this case, he barely changed his line & had nowhere to go on his right.
Sucks to be taken out in a race that is, in truth, a who-cares-about-it event.
Google’s translator works much better than Yahoo’s – I’m not sure where the “prick” came from?
Tom Boonen is it not agree with Robbie McEwen. “I think especially that McEwen in a hole is not where he had to sit,” says the Quick-Stepper.
“I had my last fall in Roubaix and now I will have experienced a fall. But left and right are in balance, he could still laugh a little.
“My whole right side is open, my tibia, wrist and foot. Especially my foot is worrying, I can not support.”
“I do not know if it is broken, maybe the tendon edge. Today or tomorrow I will investigate.”
The Schelde Price Boonen was the last race of the year. “Holidays, I had still not recognized. Maybe I will now have to stay home.”
Petacchi’s fault! He swung left to close the door on McEwen, and it worked. Dirty sprinting.