22nd August.
I decided to drive the car for the first part of today’s ride, as I was tired. For the first few days we didn’t need the car, as we had hugged the coast we could use the train to fetch the car at the end of the stage. Today though, we were heading inland to Garessio.
Geoff and George, Aka the men in black.
About 50 kms into the ride, disaster struck. George crashed. Badly. With the help of a local Italian cyclist, we called the ambulance.
Richard reckoned that the brakes had locked due to a faulty cable. George hit the road hard. He had broken his leg, badly. His tour was over, and so was his World Championship participation.
Eventually George was loaded into the ambulance and taken to Savonna hospital. Geoff went with the Ambulance, and we took the bikes to the hotel and then headed to see George in the hospital. Geoff was able to get on the phone to George’s medical aid, and make all the arrangements. He also spoke with some surgeon friends back in South Africa to try and understand the implications of the injury. The language gap made it doubly tough in the hospital.
After a while at the hospital we headed back, subdued. George, we wish you a safe and rapid recovery.
Anyone wishing to pass on good wishes to George can of course do so here and I’ll pass them on, or drop me an email and I will send you his SMS contacts.
Vendorprisey 
this is scary and awful.
I wish George a speedy recovery!