WE GO AGAIN
KEVIN McCALLUM: Radio silence snatches victory from smiling cyclists
Luka Pibernik heard the bell toll in Messina. He shot his arms in the air to celebrate a win. Except he had not won
Luka Pibernik heard the bell toll in Messina on Wednesday. He sprinted, sat up on his bike and shot his arms in the air to celebrate a win in the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia into Messina. Except he had not won. The bell had not tolled for him. The bell had tolled to tell them they were about to start the last lap of two circuits. Pibernik blushed, hunkered down and rolled in at the back of the bunch, hidden down in 148th place."The problem is that his radio battery was flat and so he didn’t hear us call him," said teammate Vincenzo Nibali. "He didn’t know there was a lap to go and so the gaffe happened. He’s young, things like that can happen." It does indeed happen. Ask Chris Froome. Pibernik is 23 years old. Froome was 22 years old at the World’s View Challenge in Pietermaritzburg in 2008, riding for Team Barloworld in the five days of racing around the capital of KwaZulu-Natal. It was an impressive line-up. Liquigas included Nibali, then 23, who would go on to win the Tour d...
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