McEwen furious after Tour collision

Top Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen has called for a better barrier system on the
finishing straight at road cycling races after a near-disaster.
A fan whom McEwen derisively called "some genius" leant out from the barrier to take
a photo in the last 200m of stage one on Tuesday at the Tour Down Under.
McEwen was leading the high-speed bunch sprint and his right forearm caught the camera.
The two-time Tour de France green jersey winner finished fourth behind winner Andre
Greipel of Germany, but was left with a nasty wound and McEwen is unsure whether he
will start stage two.
Three years ago at the Tour de France, Norwegian star Thor Hushovd was left with an
ugly laceration on his arm after he hit a sponsor's sign that a fan was waving over
the barricade.
Race organisers frequently tell fans not to have anything hanging over the barriers.
"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."
McEwen said the fan was leaning nearly a metre out onto the finishing straight at
Mawson Lakes, north of Adelaide.
"Someone not using any common sense stuck the camera right out, which is incredibly
dangerous," he said.
"What they did ruined my day, but it could have ruined the race, ruined my entire
season or worse.
"I'd really like to see some sort of double barrier system in races, all races, in
the last 200m or get the barriers much further back from the road edge."
McEwen added he was having treatment on the arm, which swelled up noticeably after
the incident, but there appears to be no bone fractures.
"(It's) really, really sore and I'm not even sure I can hold the handlebars," he said.
"We're trying to reduce the swelling and get the fluid out - it's a possible muscle
tear and probably a burst blood vessel.
"When you get hit by something at 70km/h it's like a golf swing at 60 per cent power
hitting you in the arm like a baseball bat."