Tragic stage for the Giro d'Italia;
Wouter Weylandt dies in crash

A fatal crash on a downhill run cast a pall over the Giro d'Italia as it wrapped up Stage 3 on the Italian Riviera on Monday.

Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt, left, died from injuries he suffered in a crash on the descent of Passo del Bocco, about 15 miles from the finish line.

Video from the race showed EMTs performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on the rider for the Leopard Trek cycling team. Reports say he was later airlifted to a local hospital. It did not appear anyone else was involved in the crash.

[Andrew Hood reported for VeloNews that Manuel Cardosa (RadioShack) witnesses the crash. He said that Weylandt was trailing the main peloton as it sped down the hill. He turned to look behind him and struck a small wall at the side of the road with his left pedal or handlebar “and was catapulted to the other side of the road when he hit something again..”]

Our condolences to family, friends and teammates of the 26-year-old cyclist.

Weylandt spent his entire pro career with QuickStep before moving over the the new Leopard-Trek team for this season. Last year, he won Stage 3 of the Giro as a cyclist for Quickstep. The Leopard Trek team released the following statement:

Hundreds are leaving their condolences at the Leopard-Trek Facebook page and his personal Facebook page. Cycling commentator Paul Sherwen said in a Tweet:

All jersey presentations and other post-race ceremonies were canceled.

Results

If podium ceremonies had been held, Angel Vicioso (Adroni Giocattoli cycling team) would have received honors as stage winner, and David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) would have donned the maglia rosa as overall race leader.

Both were in a small group that surprised the sprinters on a short, but steep, climb along the coast in the final 6 miles before the finish in Rapallo.

Vicioso attacked in a four-man group that included an Omega cyclist and Garmin-Cervelo's Christophe Le Mevel. Millar bridged up to the group to give Garmin two cyclists in the break, but Vicioso was able to beat Millar to the finish line.

Jerseys

Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) finished several minutes back and had to relinquish the pink leader's jersey. With two mechanical problems with his bicycle earlier in the stage, he was not a factor in the race. None of the other sprinters, such as Tyler Farrar (Garmin), Alessando Petacchi (Lampre) or Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) posed a threat.

Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago), a member of a early four-man breakaway, was first over the climb of Passo del Bocco to earn the green mountains jersey. The peloton, led by the Lampre team, caught the breakaway after the descent.

Petacchi (Lampre) retained the red sprinter's jersey and Jan Bakelandts (Omega-Pharma) took the Young Rider jersey.

HTC-Columbia cyclist Craig Lewis of Greenville, SC, dropped to fifth place overall.