Today's post will talk about one of the most important cycling traditions still existing in the pro peloton; what should not happen when the leader of the race (or any other potential contender) crashes.

Team LPR Brakes and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott) seemed to not understand this. When maglia rosa Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) went down in a crash that also involved many other riders including Levi Leipheimer (Astana), Riccò, Danilo Di Luca and Paolo Savoldelli decided to attack. Of course, no one knows whether they knew there was a crash or not but the aggression lasted long enough that race radio would have informed them. Another clue would have been the countless other riders screaming at Riccò, Di Luca and Savoldelli to stop. What's wrong with these guys? Is winning their national tour getting to their heads that they don't think rationally?

Follow up:

Let's go back a few years to the 2003 Tour de France, for example. Remember when Lance Armstrong and Iban Mayo went down thanks to a spectator's bag getting caught on Armstrong's handlebars? Well, that was similar to what happened with Visconti today. But the difference between that incident and today's was the lead peloton, including Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton and others, slowed the pace down so Armstrong and Mayo could rejoin them. Granted Visconti is no Armstrong but tradition dictates that he be given some respect because of his position in the race.

My guess is that there will be some verbal sparring going on and Team LPR and Riccò will not be liked very much. STL is officially against any of these guys winning.

Now back to the race. Di Luca and Riccò once again tried some moves in what should have been a routine day since the main climb happened in the middle of the stage. They did drop Visconti but all of the major contenders just watched while those two spent energy they will madly need this weekend and for the final week of this race. Considering Visconti made it back to the main group and retained his lead, Di Luca and Riccò's move was all for naught. We'll see if they end up paying for it.

On a side note, Visconti was taken to the hospital for a check up following the stage. We hope he'll be able to continue tomorrow.

Top 10 for Stage 11
1 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni................5.44.22
2 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne....................................0.05
3 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
4 Tiziano dall'Antonia (Ita) CSF Group Navigare...................................0.41
5 Laurent Mangel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale.........................................1.33
6 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Française des Jeux
7 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas........................................................3.53
8 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
9 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre
10 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner

See the complete results here.