The dangers of cycling

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MAWSON LAKES, Australia -- Robbie McEwen, who won the Cancer Council Classic charity criterium Sunday in advance of the Tour Down Under and is a popular Australian rider who was hoping to win some sprints and stages, left the course holding his right arm carefully. The arm was already swelling because he had whacked it against a camera lense about 150 meters from Tuesday’s finish.

And it was an angry McEwen, who rides for the new Russian team Katusha, who spoke after Team Columbia’s Andre Greipel had won the first stage.

‘I was not all that close to the barriers but when I started my sprint and had just changed into the biggest gear to really make my final sprint for the line some genius in the crowd decided they wanted to get an action photo and reached right out over the barriers with a really big camera,’ McEwen said. ‘I saw it and I just couldn’t do anything, it was impossible to avoid and it hit me straight on the (right) forearm. It’s broken the skin and I have a wound in the shape of the camera lens.

‘It stopped me in my tracks and then Greipel came off my wheel and sprinted home to win the stage but I couldn’t hold the handle bars so I just stopped and came in fourth.

‘Someone not using any common sense stuck the camera right out which is incredibly dangerous. What they did ruined my day but it could have ruined the race, ruined my entire season or worse.’

Greipel, who is the defending race champion, said his win partly came ‘because of luck,’ and partly because of the strong, smart ride from his team.

‘My guys led me out perfectly at the end,’ Greipel said.

-- Diane Pucin