Giant-Alpecin training crash
@informacion_es
Hard to start with anything else, really. The incident itself has already been pretty well documented, as a driver crossed into the wrong lane in Alicante and collided with a group of Giant-Alpecin riders on a training camp. Six riders were injured, with Chad Haga sustaining a fractured orbital bone and John Degenkolb suffering a fractured radius and an almost severed left index finger, which is pretty grim.
I won't get into why the driver was on the wrong side of the road (popular assumption is that she was an ignorant Brit assuming our side is correct worldwide, I'm more willing to believe it was just a badly-taken corner or similar), because the key issue here is the ramifications for Degenkolb and Giant-Alpecin. With Haga avoiding facial surgery (and with all due respect, perhaps anyway), TGA's focus will be Degenkolb, the man they decided was a strong enough sprinter to let Marcel Kittel leave.
His surgeon has stated that it's a three month healing process, but TGA manager Iwan Spekenbrink has said that the Classics are still a target for Degenkolb, and given his success there in the past, you can understand that. And while having your finger hanging off is a genuinely horrific injury, once the pain is dealt with, whether the finger is fully functional or not, one does wonder how much it will affect Degenkolb's ability to ride a bike (although gripping the handlebars on the cobbles does not sound like my idea of fun).
Bobridge wins Australian road race championship
Eurosport
In cheerier news, the Australian national championships were held a week prior to the Tour Down Under, and Jack Bobridge dug out a superb solo effort to win the Elite men's road race. He went alone for 90km to win the race by almost three minutes, a gutsy effort from a man who's already got one national championship under his belt.
Elsewhere at the Aussie nationals, Amanda Spratt took her second women's road race title, outsprinting Ruth Corset, while the time trial championships were taken by Rohan Dennis and Katrin Garfoot.
Garfoot cleans up in Australia
Con Chronis
In addition to her success in the national time trial, a fortnight later Katrin Garfoot sealed victory in the Santos Women's Tour, the female equivalent of the Tour Down Under. She took victory in the first stage in a sprint, and was always up at the sharp end of all four stages to hold onto the lead throughout the race, showing herself to be one of the best all-rounders in women's cycling, by taking victories in two disciplines in such a short space of time.
She's already said she's got her eyes on a gold medal in the Rio Olympics this summer, and given the strength she's showed in similar temperatures in Australia, you'd have to put her towards the top of any list of favourites.
Quintana wins Tour de San Luis, but not the one you'd expect
Tim de Waele
Before the Tour de San Luis started, you'd have found many people predicting a victory for Movistar's Nairo Quintana. And while it was a Quintana giving Movistar the GC victory in Argentina, few would have thought it would be Nairo's brother Dayer taking the top step of the podium.
The key time was lost in stage 4 of 7, where Dayer jumped clear of the peloton to attack, but while he was caught and passed by stage winner Eduardo Sepulveda, his brother did not have the legs to get out of the group, while Vincenzo Nibali also tasted disappointment, as he cracked on the same climb.
The two brothers rode together through the climbs of stage 6, but Nairo couldn't, or wouldn't, overhaul his brother, with the younger Quintana defying his usual domestique status to take his only GC victory to date, and prove himself capable of bigger things in the future.
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