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Perhaps Simon Gerrans’ luck is turning, if not as quickly or completely as he would have wanted.
The Australian cycling star’s horror run of crashes that started in late 2014 continued on Wednesday at the Tour Down Under.
Gerrans was the most prominent casualty of the crash about 500m from the stage two finish at Stirling.
It robbed him of the chance for a top-three finish that would have given him another vital time bonus.
His main Orica-GreenEDGE wingman Daryl Impey was also caught in the pileup.
But Gerrans only suffered minor scrapes and while Impey was more banged up, he also will keep racing.
And the Orica-GreenEDGE team leader also picked up five seconds of time bonuses thanks to the two intermediate sprints earlier in the stage.
So Gerrans improved to third overall, five seconds behind new race leader Jay McCarthy.
It is a far cry from a year ago, when Gerrans was forced out of the Tour because of a pre-Christmas mountain bike accident that left him with a broken collarbone.
That was the start of a horror run of crashes that meant Gerrans’ season never gained any momentum.
Gerrans has made no secret of his determination to start the new year by winning his fourth Tour Down Under title.
Asked if he feared the worst immediately after Wednesday’s crash, given his previous woeful luck, Gerrans immediately replied “no, not at all.
“As soon as I picked myself up again I knew nothing was severely wrong.
“I asked Daryl how he was straight away and he seems to be okay too.”
Gerrans admitted he was bitterly disappointed that another day of strong Orica-GreenEDGE teamwork did not end with a stage win.
But he remains upbeat about his prospects.
“Obviously we would have loved to get some more time bonuses on the finish line today, but we picked up five seconds on the road,” he said.
“So its not a complete disaster.”
Gerrans also gained one more bonus second on Wednesday than defending champion Rohan Dennis, who finished third on the stage and is now fourth overall.
“As much as it was a disastrous finale, all was not lost today,” he said.
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