Robbie McEwen Drops Out Again From "Il Giro"

As I predicted about a couple of weeks ago, Australian Robbie McEwen had enough of Il Giro this year. I intend to say that, if he wasn't to win those three races in the first stages, maybe, just maybe, he would have had a reason to stay in the Italian event. But, after winning his 10th stage of Il Giro, McEwen's performances were just for the sake of it. Finishing way, way behind the stage winners, McEwen only waited until he realized that he'd be better off.

So he finally dropped out. It happened in the 13th stage of the tour. Suffering from stomach problems - well, I'm not to sure about that, since this is the reason for which he always used dropping out of major competition - the Australian didn't start the Alessandria - La Thuile stage this morning. Instead, he packed his things and went straight to his Belgium residence.

The team officials stated that: "Robbie had problems during yesterday's stage and still felt ill this morning and so it didn't make sense for him to carry on. We were hoping he'd be able to win in Brescia on Monday but we have to be happy with three stages victories". The Lotto - Davitamon are now without a sprinter for their 14th stage in Il Giro, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for the Italian team.

Dropping out of Il Giro is certainly not a fresh experience for the Australian sprinter. Even though he won 11 stages in the competition - truly something not everyone could achieve - he always failed to finish the race. The 33-year old is now on his 5th consecutive drop-out in the Italian Tour.

Especially with mountain stages coming up in Il Giro, most of the Aussies have said "Good Bye!" to the Italian crowd. Another drop-out is 3-times world champ in time-trials - Michael Rogers. Suffering from a tooth pain, he admitted that it was more than likely that the competition would have been a simple waste of time, since mountain stages are not his style: "Basically, you're fighting a losing battle, especially when you have to tackle those leg-breaking climbs in the Giro's final week".