06/04/2012

Elia Viviani suffers hairline fracture to pelvis at Track Worlds
The Italian crashed yesterday and was forced to withdraw. Elia now returns to Italy for further tests



Elia Viviani’s Track World Championships in Australia finished in the worst possible way. All legitimate hopes of success were dashed yesterday by a crash in the second race of the omnium, which resulted in a hairline fracture to the lower right part of his pelvis according to staff from the Italian Cycling Federation following x-rays at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.



The Chinese rider Liu Hao crashed into the Liquigas-Cannondale athlete during the points race (which was dominated by Viviani). But Elia gritted his teeth and continued to compete in the third race, the elimination round, in which general doubts prevailed and he was disqualified for “dangerous riding”. The first day was over, but Elia started to feel worse during the morning (night time in Europe) of the second day: so the decision was made to have x-rays and the bad news was revealed. So Viviani has withdrawn from the Championships and is coming back to Italy as soon as possible where he will undergo further, more detailed clinical tests with Liquigas-Cannondale’s team doctor, Roberto Corsetti. Only once the results are back will his recovery programme by decided.



«These World Championships have been one of the most negative sports experiences of my career. » said Viviani. «I put everything into my preparation and I had really high hopes. Unfortunately, it all went wrong: first there was the disappointing result in the scratch, then the fall, the disqualification and finally the withdrawal. I’m truly, truly gutted because this incident means shelving all my dreams of Worlds glory and most probably the ambitions I had for my immediate future in road racing. »