Andy didn't start today's stage of T-A and Fabian got retired! Aargh!

So,I closed the last post here on My Blog saying:let's hope Andy can do well in today's T-A stage.I didn't know that Andy (and his teammate Marcus Ljungqvist) didn't start the race this morning.Of course Italian chronists didn't say a word about that and so I realise just now why I didn't see him in today's stage (that was won by Michele Scarponi,that also took the leader jersey). Also Faboulous Fabian got retired "im Laufe der Rennen" ("during the stage,"sorry but I have to train a lot in German those days) .I've found some infos about what happened to three riders on Saxo bank's website: "Andy asked not to start because of pain in his left knee and Markus Ljungquist had to surrender due to a stomach pain that had made the Swedish rider suffer the previous two stages. “It was not the best beginning, but the profile of the stage showed that it would be pointless to make the two riders do the race. Markus was decidedly ruled out because of the stomach ache,and Andy had already incipient pain during the stage of Montelupone. Fabian did nearly 170 kilometres, which certainly was acceptable in relation to the condition he is in right now”, sports director Torsten Schmidt said after the stage from Civitanova Marche to Camerino “The other riders did some useful, yet ruthless race kilometres, and with nearly seven hours in the saddle through constantly undulating terrain, we must say that such a day serves as an excellent preparation for the classics. Today's stage matched the level meters and distance of the toughest stages in the big stage races, so it's no wonder that many rider didn't make it through”, Schmidt added.
As I already said,the stage was won by Scarponi in front of Basso and Garzelli.Lovkvist and Kloden had problems during the Sasso Tetto ascent and lost about a minute in the GC.
At the moment I just hope Andy's pain (and also Fabian and Ljungqvist's problems) is not so serious to make him lose other races or important hours of training.Hope to get more news tomorrow.
(Photo from Schleck.lu)