Menchov hit by a car and the flu last week, while Sastre struggling through a cold

Following an excellent performance at the Vuelta a Murcia, the young season of last year’s Tour de France third place finisher, Denis Menchov, seemed to be right on track. Unfortunately, last week, Menchov was able to demonstrate how perfect preparation can rapidly turn into near chaos.

The three-time Grand Tour winner was first hit by a car at home in Pamplona while out training, and then, following that, he came down with the flu.

The Geox-TMC captain relayed the hard luck news to his team website.

“The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, in addition to being a very prestigious race, is also a fundamental step for the preparation for the Giro d’Italia, so I’ve decided to start. Unfortunately, last week, I did not have much luck. First, I crashed while training, a car hit me in the streets of my hometown [of Pamplona]. Then, I fought a nasty flu. Friday and Saturday, I had a high fever, but now I feel much better, and I want to focus on the race. After the first stages, I’ll know where I stand in terms of my condition.”

With only a couple of days of recovering between his flu and the difficult first day of the Volta a Catalunya, Menchov unsurprisingly lost a large chunk of time on Stage One, finishing over thirteen minutes in arrears of attacker Gatis Smukulis and losing all hope of a solid overall result.

Menchov wasn’t the only Geox-TMC captain to struggle on Monday either. Former Tour de France winner, Carlos Sastre, also struggled and finished in the same group as his teammate.

“With the temperature changes that have been occurring, I caught a cold a few days ago. I came to this Volta a Catalunya a little less healthy than usual, so today I tried to get through the stage as best I could. I found a pretty good group and got to the finish line. It was a bearable day.”

While both Sastre and Menchov are out of the running for the team’s second World Tour event of 2011, if they can get through the first couple days, it seems likely that they could factor later on in the week as their collective health improves.

As Menchov said, Catalunya is an important stepping stone in building one’s form for the Giro, which is now just over a month away.