Navigation

Pascal Richard pulls out of Giro d'Italia

The Olympic champion, Switzerland's Pascal Richard, has pulled out of the Giro d'Italia on medical advice. Richard is the key rider in the British team, Linda McCartney.

This content was published on May 14, 2000 - 12:32

He and his team mate, Ben Brooks, were too ill to start Sunday's opening stage.

"Brooks was unwell when he started Saturday's time trial, and Richard became ill during the night," said team manager Sean Yates.

"They have a virus, with diarrhoea and flu symptoms. Our doctor, Roger Palfreyman, said it was best for them to pull out."

Sunday's opening stage was to have taken the riders on the 129 kilometre journey from Rome to Terracina.

Switzerland's Daniel Schnider and Niki Aebersold are still competing in the 3,700 kilometre marathon. But they are up against tough competition, including Paolo Salvoldelli, who is fresh from his victory in Switzerland's Tour de Romandie.

A Swiss victory is unlikely - the best the riders can hope for is to win some of the stages.

The Czech Republic's Jan Hruska, won Saturday's prologue race in Rome. He narrowly beat Paolo Salvoldelli to take the leader's pink jersey.

The race has been broken up into 21 stages and will take the 72 cyclists across Italy to finish up in Milan by June 4.

swissinfo with agencies

In compliance with the JTI standards

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

Sort by

Change your password

Do you really want to delete your profile?

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.

Discover our weekly must-reads for free!

Sign up to get our top stories straight into your mailbox.

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.