Cavendish Gets 17th Tour Stage Win, Horner Suffers Concussion and Nose Fracture
7/8/11 - Britain's Mark Cavendish has claimed his seventeenth Tour de France stage today in a bunch sprint at Chateauroux. Cavendish clinched the win on the same finish that he took his first ever Tour de France stage back in 2008. Second was Italy's Alessandro Petacchi and third, Andre Greipel of Germany.
It remains unclear whether Team RadioShack’s Chris Horner will be able to start in stage 8 of the Tour de France. That decision will be made on Saturday morning, July 9th. Horner (39) was involved in a crash at 35k from the finish in Châteauroux. He was able to complete the stage, finishing twelve minutes behind the peloton. After the stage he was brought to the hospital in Châteauroux where a concussion, a nose fracture and a calf hematoma were diagnosed. Horner remained foggy about his surroundings and the events of the day several hours after the stage ended. His situation will be evaluated after he rests overnight.
The bad luck continued for Team RadioShack on Friday with more Team riders going down, including Yaroslav Popovych, Haimar Zubeldia, Markel Irizar and Levi Leipheimer. A big crash with 35k to go affected some 80 riders who were forced to chase back but lost more than three minutes on the line, a group that included Leipheimer. Remarkably within three days a strong four-man approach was reduced to one team leader, with Andreas Klöden the only one of the original starters still in GC contention for Team RadioShack.
“I can tell you what happened from the car perspective,” said Team Manager Johan Bruyneel after the stage. “We don’t know how the crash happened, but I just spoke with the guys and we were basically on the right side of the peloton near the front. They came out of an open area into a covered area and they all went off to the right. We had a few guys right there: Levi, Haimar, Markel and of course Chris. He was the worse. When I got there, he was lying in a ditch and was very shaken. It was obvious he’d hit very hard. He finished the stage and I think basically he’s ok physically. He has a few bruises and swelling. But we’re taking him to the hospital to have a scan. He doesn’t really know where he is right now or what happened. We’ll see what the results are but I fear the worst. Obviously it’s been three difficult days for us with Jani crashing out, yesterday Levi crashing and again today, and now maybe losing Chris. We’ll see what the damage is tonight and tomorrow morning and then we’ll go on.”
“There is just nothing you can do,” added Leipheimer. “We were well-positioned but were going 75kph and everyone is nervous. It’s been a long first week. We’ve had a lot of technical, critical finishes, uphill finishes, a lot of small roads, some bad weather. I think all of that together has created the nervousness and the GC standings are still very close so until that separates the peloton doesn’t really calm down. At 35k to go there was a huge crash. I have no idea what caused it. Nerves in the peloton I guess. People are taking risks. Everybody wants to be in the front and there is only so much room. Today it went down like a house of cards; it was massive. I just got scraped up, but three days, three crashes. It just hasn’t been my Tour so far.”
With so much time lost, the Team will now ride exclusively for Andreas Klöden. “Definitely for Klödi,” said Leipheimer. “He looks strong and has ridden really well this first week. He’s great at sniffing out the safe spot in the group and he’s coming into form at the right time. So first for Klödi, then we’ll look for stage wins, we have the team GC on our minds. We’re here to fight. I’m thankful I’m still in the race. It was warfare out there.”
