Ben Brooks - Injured

The action-packed Settimana International continued unabated for the Linda McCartney Foods Cycling Team in Italy today. Olympic Champion Pascal Richard secured yet another top 10 placing, but Aussie Ben Brooks was hospitalised after a nasty crash.

Ben's crash happened when the bunch were chasing down Andrea Ferrigato of Fasso Bortolo, after the Italian's epic lone break had given him a 21-minute advantage over the field. There was a touch of wheels, and around a dozen men met the gravelled road, including Ben and his team-mate, ex British champion Matt Stephens. Matt was more inconvenienced than incapacitated, and after a bike change, chased long and hard to eventually recoup some of his losses and finish 5 minutes down on the main field.

Ben's condition was not as good, and he was taken to hospital with multiple abrasions. Although painful, the hospital deemed them not serious enough to require any more attention other than a clean-up, and he has been allowed to rejoin his team-mates at their hotel. However, he's been instructed not to walk for two days to allow the copious swelling to recede so that they can take a better look.

Meanwhile, Ferrigato's 200km lone break had been ended just 12km from glory, but the chase had taken it's toll on the bunch, and there were now only 50 or so men at the front, including Max Sciandri, Pascal Richard and Maurizio De Pasquale from Linda McCartney. The same big names who had attempted to split the field yesterday came forward again, and Pascal went away with Bettini, Casagrande and Rebellin, plus 7 other hitters.

Pascal went for a long one in the 12-man sprint, but couldn't quite carry it off and was swamped in the final 30 metres, still finishing an excellent 9th. That moves him up to 8th overall just behind Mapei's Paolo Bettini, who took both the stage and the overall lead. Bettini is in fantastic form at the moment, and is emerging from the shadow of his mentor Michele Bartoli to become a significant force in his own right. He'll take some shifting, but the quality of this field is such that he is surrounded by top class riders, any of whom could topple him, not least Pascal Richard.