Chaotic scenes on the Germany Tour this morning as riders clashed following a tempestuous Stage 8 in which Team airik's Domenico De Assis stole the win in the last kilometre to the finish.
  
  While all eyes were on the tussle in front as Radek Lukaszewski (Legia), Ian Defley (Dodge) and Yasunari Yamauchi (Team iPower) duked it out, trouble was brewing in the peloton. Riders from Gradient Levellers and Hommerts Cycling Team had been getting in each other's way all through the race, no doubt fueled by some ill advised remarks attributed to the English team's Teodoro Lurdes.
  
  "Subpar rider. We'll smash his team today," he'd been quoted as saying when asked about Japanese rider Susumu Miyazaki and his Hommerts Cycling Team in an interview with Andorran local television Televisió Cycling d'Andorra (TCVA).
  
  Although Lurdes later moved to distance himself from the comments, saying he'd been misquoted and was merely chatting about the weather back home, Dutch officials were visibly livid at the remarks and demanded a retraction and apology that never came.
  
  It was no surprise when the race started later and both team's riders were often seen jostling dangerously for position, especially on the narrow paths winding up the many climbs on the stage. As the CCFC riders set a back-breaking cadence up front, hoping no doubt to preserve their stranglehold on the yellow

and green jerseys, the riders still couldn't be seperated in the middle of the pack, leading to some other team leaders nervously keeping their distance to stay out of trouble.
  
  The obvious bad blood between the teams continued to simmer as the race left Munich and the riders set their sights on the Bavarian city of Kempten. Lurdes suffered a flat tire early and suffered catcalls from some of the Hommerts riders as they went past.
  
  By this time, the dangerous game of cat and mouse was bordering on the ludicrous, and fearing for the safety of some of the other riders, race officials ordered team officials from both sides to calm things down. Miyazaki and Conrado Fraga were called back to their respective team cars for a chat and things seemed to die down for awhile.
  
  However, the peace was not to last.
  
  Just as De Assis appeared out of nowhere and blew past the race leaders in a superhuman burst for the finish line, things got ugly and fast. In the middle of the throng of riders, two kilometres fromt the finish, Hommerts Cycling Team's Jeremy Nieuwendijk appeared to swerve sharply right before the sweeping corner. This sudden maneuver caused a bunch of riders to collide and took out a whole section of the peloton.
  
  Gradient Levellers' Jeremy Wieringh, following just behind, never stood a chance as he flipped and landed

up in a bad way on the road. Telek@m's Dirk Herman was also an unlucky victim, being one of those who lay unmoving as the dust settled and riders started to pick themselves off the ground.
  
  As medical personnel raced to the scene of the carnage, the battered and bruised peloton limped home across the finish line. It wasn't long before enraged team mates of Wieringh went looking for blood.
  
  Gradient Levellers' team leader Conrado Fraga was seen attacking Nieuwendijk with his helmet and a bike wheel, landing a couple of good blows before being dragged away. As his team mates gave chase, the bleeding Nieuwendijk escaped to the team trailer.
  
  It remains to be seen if the 'Portuguese Volcano' will be fined or even banned for his part in the fracas, though Gradient Levellers team officials insist Nieuwendijk was equally culpable for causing the crash in the first place.
  
  Race organisers were unavailable for comment, but it surely took the gloss off a magnificent first stage win for the young Nicaraguan rider Domenico De Assis.
  
  Racing resumes today as the riders compete in the penultimate stage of the Germany Tour in Leipzig - Potsdam before they head back to Berlin for the finale.
  
  Yegor Astapkovich of MyPa takes over the leader's yellow jersey while Kyle Abston (CCFC) remains in green.