Giro Jot del Giorno - 5/19/2012

As I predicted last week, another breakaway succeeded, this time on an uphill finish, with Ryder Hesjedal animating a 4th place finish into the pink jersey. What is interesting about the stage winner, Andrey Amador of Movistar, besides being the first Costa Rican to ever win a Grand Tour stage, is that by pure grace, he is still alive after being mugged during a training ride two years ago:

He was mugged while training and believed that the offenders were only interested in stealing his bike, so he tried to run away from them. But they stabbed him till he became unconscious and he was left for dead for six hours next to a river. He still had his phone in his pocket when he regained consciousness and called his family to get a ride back home. A kidney was paralyzed and his lungs were affected and it took him several months to recover. [emph. added]

From "left for dead" to Giro stage winner is a pretty good story for Amador.