Injured Patrick Shaw crashes out of cycle tour in second stage

PATRICK Shaw is out of the Herald Sun Tour.Shaw crashed out shortly after the start of the second stage yesterday.Already carrying the battle scars of a fall in stage one near Ballarat on Monday, the Ballarat 23-year-old again found himself on the deck just 8km into the Colac-Warrnambool stage.Shaw battled on after going down at Mt Rowan in the opening stage an incident in which he lost skin on his left shoulder and elbow _ to finish near the rear of the field.He again remounted yesterday, but this time the discomfort was too much after taking the brunt of the tumble on his left elbow.Shaw, with the arm in a sling, was late yesterday still uncertain of the extent of the injury.Shaw said he had been planning to take a short break to freshen up before preparing for the Australian Open Road Championships in Ballarat in January after this tour.He said only time would tell what impact his latest misfortune would have on these plans.Shaw had hardly warmed up when he crashed in the five-rider fall yesterday. He said another cyclist had cut across in front of him, leaving him nowhere to go.Although determined to go on, Shaw finally gave way to the pain after 26km and spent the rest of the 141km stage in the team car.Shaw stayed in Warrnambool last night and was unsure whether he would stay with the team for the remainder of the tour, which ends in Melbourne on Saturday, or return home to Ballarat to begin his recovery.The premature end to the tour continues a terrible run of luck on home ground for the European-based Shaw.A fall also ended his 2006 Herald Sun Tour. On that occasion he required surgery and was laid up for seven weeks.He was disqualified in the 2007 Australian Cycling Grand Prix road race in Ballarat, and has had a series of other falls in Australia, including one this this years national road titles at Buninyong.He cannot believe his luck, or lack of it.The impressive performances of Jayco Australian National teammates Matthew Wilson and Nick Aitken yesterday did ease some of the pain for Shaw.For the second day in a row, Wilson, who won the 2007 Herald Sun Tour, and Aitken, who at 19 years of age is one of Australia's rising stars, were part of the leading group to finish and remain in calculations for general classification honours.Wilson was third and is third overall.