Road captain of Tudor shares anecdote from pre-Giro training ride: "My Giro nearly ended before it even started"

In their second time at Giro d'Italia, Tudor Pro Cycling aims to leave a decisive mark at the Italian Grand Tour. But for one of their riders, the Giro nearly ended before it had even begun. The team had been on a training stroll north of Tirana when their American road captain Larry Warbasse nearly kissed the local roads in a momentary loss of focus.

"'Watch out!' I yelled, as I too frequently do, trying to signal a massive crater in the road to my teammates behind," Warbasse tells the story of the Albanian prologue in a Cyclingnews blog. "As I swerved to avoid it on my BMC TimeMachine TT bike, I hit a different bump just next to it, and my sunscreen-coated gloveless hand slipped from the bar, and I stumbled, only to somehow catch myself with my wrist and keep my bike upright. It was a close call."

"My Giro nearly ended before it started here in Albania, but luckily, my teammates and I all made it to the start line in Durres in one piece. And out of the first three stages for that matter, which, seeing how it started on our first ride here, seems like a big win."

"I have to say we were somewhat worried about the state of the roads after our two pre-Giro training rides," Warbasse confesses. Thankfully, the roads of stages 1, 2 & 3 were fairly decent. "I also find that when everyone is on high alert in the bunch - for example, on rainy days or with terrible roads - it seems like there are even fewer crashes than normal, I think because of the increased focus with the greater perceived danger."

Of course, the crash of Mikel Landa and Geoffrey Bouchard during stage 1 remains on everyone's memory. But in general, it was relatively calm start to a Grand Tour. "So, on the whole, I think there seemed to be a fair number fewer crashes in the race than normal for the first few days of a Grand Tour, which is a very good thing."