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Giro d’Italia 2014: stage ten – five observations

Nacer Bouhanni causes FDJ headaches; Sky continue to push without reward

It’s fair to say that Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) is no stranger to hitting the deck. The American has suffered his fair share of falls throughout his career – the 2011 Vuelta a Espana, 2012 Giro d’Italia, three in three days at the 2012 Tour de France to name just a few examples.

And after seeing team-mates Dan Martin and Koldo Fernandez crash out of the stage one team time trial, Farrar crashed just 700 metres from the finishing line on stage ten – bringing down several riders behind him, too.

Tyler Farrar suffered yet another crash, falling victim to the technical final kilometre (pic: Sirotti)

But is there a more serious aspect to it than just calling out Farrar’s ongoing battle with gravity? This year’s Giro has been littered with technical sprints – Belfast was a prime example, with a tight corner just 200 metres from the finish line, while Bari’s circuit, as well as being extremely wet, was twisting and technical. On stage ten, even the intermediate sprint had a bend just before it.

Of course, as spectators we don’t just want long, finishing straights on every stage – though there will be plenty of riders happy to see that. But we also don’t want the leading fast men consistently crashing. RCS Sport may want redress the balance next year.

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