Lance Armstrong Unlucky In Second Stage of 2010 Tour de France
If Lance Armstrong was able to barely escape injury in the first stage of the 2010 Tour de France, he wasn’t as fortunate on Monday as the second stage proved to be much more chaotic. The chaos that has developed in the last two days of the Tour is definitely a different world from Armstrong’s life as a retiree. “Almost all day, I wondered why I came off the beach,” Armstrong quipped. “But I'll be back at it tomorrow.”
Scrapes and bruises adorned the hip and elbow of the seven-time champion, who at one point in the race was left looking for his bike. It was that intense a race for Armstrong, as well as for dozens of riders who fell victim to the slippery downhill run. Similar to what happened in the first stage, the one who came out as victor was not part of the mayhem.
France’s Sylvain Chavanel broke away of the pack early in the 125-mile jaunt from Brussels to Spa, finishing almost four minutes ahead.
His victory allowed him to take the yellow jersey from Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara slid to second spot, giving away to the 87th place Chavanel. Tony Martin of Germany dropped to third place, trailing by three minutes and seven seconds.
Armstrong also dropped a notch in standings to fifth place, but still maintains a lead over his rival and defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain. Contador crashed on the descent from the midlevel Stockeu Pass, bruising his right hip, elbow and knee in the process.
Alongside him was 2009 runner-up Andy Schleck and Armstrong. While Armstrong knew that he just sustained minor scrapes and bruises when he crashed, he was concerned with other issues, like his bike, perhaps. “I knew I was fine,” Armstrong said. “My first thought was: ‘Where is my bike?’ I tried to find my bike. You know in the rain these guys are very good downhill. I'm not one of them. But even the good ones, with something like that: No chance. Absolutely no chance.”
There were reports that the slippery downhill terrain was not all rain. Before the peloton passed, a motorcycle crash that left oil may have added to the already-slippery road. “You had people everywhere. It was surreal. When I got back on my bike...I saw crash, after crash, after crash,” Armstrong added. “It was like war.”
Armstrong’s description of the mayhem was spot-on, which almost pushed the organizers to cancel the stage altogether. However, the crashes were too spread out to deserve a cancellation. At the end of the race, nearly every team incurred scrapes and bruises. At least half of the 194 riders crashed, with at least 23 reported to have sustained minor injuries.
French rider Mickael Delage of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team was the only rider who was not able to finish. Delage slammed into a road barrier early in the stage and was immediately taken to a hospital. He suffered a concussion, a broken bone in his face and shoulder, and sustained injuries in his knee and hands.
While the casualties in the last two days have caused reason for alarm among the riders and organizers, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The third stage—a 132-mile ride from Wanze Arenberg to Porte du Hainaut—throws in an interesting twist to a bruised and battered pack: a trickier terrain composed of seven patches of cobblestones.
Cobblestones are normally situated far from the end of a stage but for this year’s Tour, the last 28 kilometers will include four sections of cobblestones. It will be another obstacle thrown in the way of a resilient bunch of riders, tried and tested for the past few days
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