Cycling: Svorada wins Italian stage; Cipollini disqualified
The Czech cyclist, Ian Svorada, has won the third stage of the Giro d'Italia after the Italian rider, Mario Cipollini, was disqualified for illegal sprinting in the final moments.
The race jury agreed that Cipollini had leaned on Svorada as the two men sprinted for the line. The Italian was demoted to last place as a result of the infringement.
Svorada felt the punbishment was justified. “Mario was bothering me,” he argued, “voluntarily or involuntarily, it’s hard to say. But he is strong enough to be able to win without doing that.”
Svorada completed the 177km stage in four hours, 44 minutes and 36 seconds. The 31-year-old Czech has accumulated more than 50 victories since turning professional in 1991. The greatest of these was a stage win in the Tour de France.
In the overall standings, Italy’s Christian Moreni retains the leader’s pink jersey, going into Wednesday’s 233km stage from Scalea to Matera.
The best placed Swiss rider, Daniel Schnider, came in with the main group, while Niki Aebersold lost nearly six and a half minutes.
In the overall standings, Schnider is currently in 34th place, 46 seconds behind the leader. Aebersold is lagging behind by more than nine minutes.
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