Petacchi out with self-inflicted injury

BBC Sport | Petacchi pays price for tantrum

So the Gentleman Sprinter wasn't too happy with how the sprint worked out in Sunday's stage at the Vuelta. Gerolsteiner's Robert Förster took the sprint, head of Stuart O'Grady, Danilo Napolitano, and Thor Hushovd. Milram's Alessandro Petacchi found himself boxed out by a late left-hander and didn't factor. After leaving the Giro early with a knee injury and missing the entire Tour de France, it was just too much to take.

Frustrated, Petacchi took a punch at the team bus. Unsurprisingly, the bus won. As a result, Petacchi is out of the Vuelta, and will miss the world championships in Salzburg in 2 weeks.

Quoted in CyclingNews:

"I was very angry," explained Petacchi. "After being injured so many months, I had the concrete possibility to finally return to success. I wanted to give my season a sense at all cost, after I had to abandon the Giro d'Italia early because of my accident.

"In any case, I admit it was a stupid gesture. I'm sorry and I ask my teammates and the team management to forgive me. But the anger was so intense that I couldn't control myself. I condemn my gesture very severely, but I am just a man, not a machine, and sometimes men make mistakes. Today I made a mistake, no doubt."

Petacchi joins a number of (typically headcase) athletes who have missed action for outburst-related injuries, including the NBA's Latrell Sprewell in 2002. Might even break into this baseball-only version of the stupidest sports injuries ever, alongside Jason Isringhausen, who similarly broke his hand in a frustrated punch.