Crashes cause chaos at Tour Down Under

One cyclist is in hospital, several others are bloodied and debate is raging after
the chaotic finish to stage two in the Tour Down Under.
New race leader Robbie McEwen and race director Mike Turtur had sharply-divided
opinions on what caused the carnage inside the last 4km of the 146km stage from
Tailem Bend to Mannum on the Murray River.
McEwen was blaming gravel on the road but Turtur fiercely disagreed and put it down
to the frenetic jockeying for position ahead of the high-speed sprint finish.
Then, at the start of the home straight in Mannum, another pileup left Tasmanian
rider Bernard Sulzberger (UniSA) with a fractured collarbone and he was undergoing
surgery on Wednesday night.
British sprint ace Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) was covered in nasty cuts and
abrasions, plus the wheel of team-mate Matt Goss smacked into his neck when he went
down.
Sky Procycling team-mates Geraint Thomas and Chris Sutton needed stitches for their
injuries as a result of the various crashes.
Goss, the stage one winner and previous race leader, suffered road rash to his back
in the same crash as Cavendish, but is level with McEwen on elapsed time.
McEwen took the lead on countback from Goss and stage two winner Ben Swift, another
Sky rider.
McEwen, who leads the Tour for the first time since 2005, said the crash at 4km
involving Goss, Cavendish and Sutton was "sickening, horrible".
"From five to eight km (out) there was just bloody gravel everywhere, on the sides
of the road, and where we crashed there was a line of gravel in the middle of the
road," McEwen said.
"If we're going to have a run-in like that, the best thing they can do is inspect
the roads closely and have a clean-up, it was so gravelly.
"There were guys slipping out all over the place, there was one major crash, there
were a couple of other smaller ones, guys slipping out and going off the road.
"It was purely the gravel that made it dangerous and really treacherous."
McEwen and RadioShack team-mate Lance Armstrong avoided the crashes.
McEwen later softened his comments to some extent but again said gravel was a factor.
While Turtur said the crashes made his "guts churn", he denied the road surface was
to blame.
"Everyone is running around blaming the gravel - they'd been on that road for three
and a half kilometres, they'd seen the road surface, you race the conditions,"
Turtur said.
"Having said that, the conditions of the road did not cause the crash.
"The run in the main straight was your typical pileup in a sprint, with guys
switching wheels.
"There are a lot of people getting over-excited, looking for a story but there's
nothing in it.
"This is fierce sprinting at its best, these things happen ... guys are going at 100
miles an hour, they want to win.
"I'm shattered, I hate seeing riders crash, I just want to see a good race but it's
part of the sport."
Turtur said late on Wednesday afternoon that he and McEwen were yet to speak about
the road conditions.
The race continues on Thursday with a tough 129km stage from suburban Unley to
Stirling in the Adelaide Hills.