Italian Classics specialist plans to be back on two wheels as soon as possible
Filippo Pozzato (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) is to undergo surgery tomorrow morning to fix a plate to the collarbone that he broke during the fifth stage of the Tour of Qatar. The Italian Classics specialist was brought down by another fallen rider, who was taken off by the crosswinds, approximately 40km from the finish of the stage between the Camel Race Track and Al Khor Corniche; he remounted almost immediately, but was forced to stop a few kilometres later.
He was taken immediately to hospital in the capital Doha, where a displaced fracture to his right collarbone.
Pozzato arrived home in Brescia, Italy, last night, and visited Doctor Terragnoli – the doctor who fixed Marco Pantani’s double tibia and fibula break in 1995 – and the decision has been made to operate tomorrow morning.
Doctor Terragnoli will operate on both of Pozzato’s collarbones; he will remove a plate from the left one, which was inserted after he fractured it in a crash during last year’s Tour of Belgium, and fix a plate to the newly broken right one.
“I wanted to be operated as soon as possible,” said Pozzato, “so as to be able to get back on my bike as soon as possible.
“Unlike the last time [when he also broke his wrist – ed] I should have less problems in getting back on my bike quickly. This time I don’t have the wrist problems that prevented me from having a speedy recovery in 2011.”
The former Italian champion represents Farnese Vini-Selle Italia’s best chance in the northern Classics, and the team’s signing of him can be credited for its receiving of an invitation to races like the Ronde van Vlaanderen. The injury and operation will doubtless put a question mark on any likelihood of him repeating his 2006 victory in Milano-Sanremo, but he will be hopeful that it doesn’t affect his preparation for the Cobbled Classics later on.