Cycling: Lance Armstrong Tour de France crash, from 1st to 5th
Lance Armstrong fell, with more than a dozen of riders of Tour de France being a part of the nerve-racking crash. The crash took place in the second stage of the Tour on a rainy day.
Defending Champion Alberto Contador, from Spain and Lance slipped while going through the descending road towards the Brussels Spa. The riders finished the stage and were alright according to their team.
Lance finished in 5th place, three minutes behind Sylvain Chavanel who finished 1st, winning the yellow jersey. Sylvian finished the stage in four hours winning Tour de France for the second time in his career.
Organizers of the Tour de France considered cancelling the stage due to such a massive crash, but could not because the rule states only the spills could warrant out a cancellation.
Lance Armstrong returned to his bus, with his outfit torn, aching elbow, leg and hip scraped. Several riders accused the motor oil found on the road for the mishap.
The riders claimed that a pack of almost 200 riders fell during the crash. A medical report that later appeared said that only 23 riders were injured. American and Australian sprint specialist such as Tyler Farrar and Robbie McEwen were taken to hospital after the crash.
Armstrong said that there was no possible way of staying on the bike. All of the riders were scared because we noticed there was something on the road. Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden teammates of Lance also fell down. Johan Bruyneel said that riding downhill with oil on the road was like ice skating, it was that slippery. The fall cost Armstrong his lead. He fell from first to fifth place after slipping. Andy Schleck who was the runners up last year was equally unlucky as he injured his elbows too but later rejoined the race.
A rider from the team Quick Step who started in the 87th place over all now was only a minute behind Fabian Cancellara also known as Spartacus, who rode right next to Armstrong. Sylvain Chavanel was ecstatic and his emotions were filled with pure happiness.
Frank Schleck’s Tour ambitions were threatened after he fell several minutes behind his pack. The tour was in much chaos and nobody knew what to do, the team Saxo bank was lagging behind while Fabian Cancellara was way ahead of them. The packs were extremely confused on how to respond to the situation. Frank was in the middle while Chavanel’s group were in front.
Fabian Cancellara, who was the race leader and spokesman for his team, told the organizers of the Tour, not to award for the final sprint, out of respect for the riders who fell. Tour organizers and course director Jean- Francois said that this was a true act of good sportsmanship.
The request went through and was honoured by the jury. In fact, the race jury would divest several riders of points for the green jersey in the competition. The green jersey is awarded to the best sprinter of the race.
Even after what happened in the last two stages with numerous collisions that took place between the professional cyclists, the next route that the riders have to take is much steeper and more dangerous. It is a 132-mile long stretch starting from Wanze Arenberg to Porte du Hainaut. The route consists of big bumps and the road is filled with bad patches.
When asked about the crash Lance Armstrong stated:
"You had people everywhere. It was surreal. When I got back on my bike ... I saw crash, after crash, after crash, noting riders lay out on the ground, it was like war".
The bloodied Tour ends on June 25th.
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