Here's what Frankie Andreau had to say about it: (
http://www.olntv.com)
Then, on the climb, Vinikourov took off in pursuit. He was not only chasing the leaders, he also was in search of valuable seconds from Armstrong. Before the top of the final climb, Vini caught Jakshe, and Parra and didn't hesitate. He went right by.
At the top he had 20 seconds on Lance's group, which contained all the favorites. Then Beloki charged the descent. As Lance told me, "Beloki was very aggressive on the descent, he was bombing it." Coming into one of the final corners, Beloki locked up his rear wheel and hit the melting pavement.
He then rolled his tire and slapped the ground hard, landing on his hip. Lance, who was right on Beloki, had to react immediately and hit the brakes.
At high speeds when you hit the brakes, your bike straightens out and you can't corner. This is what Lance did and he drove off the road into a field. He then realized that the corner ahead was a hairpin and the road doubled back. He looked up and decided to cut across a field to where the road continued.
At that point, he told me, he saw the ditch and realized he had to stop, jump off his bike, and jump back on the road. All this happened very quickly and Lance jumped back on his bike right when the other riders were passing by. It was a perfect move.
Once Lance was back in the group, the other riders stopped riding. They were waiting to see if Beloki was all right. If the group was all together, they probably would have all stopped riding so hard to give Beloki a chance to return. The problem was that Vini was up the road and he was not slowing down for anyone.
Vini is one of the favorites for the Tour and letting him have free seconds would not be the smartest thing to do. The group soon realized this and started their pursuit again, but Vini won the stage easily.
The Postal Service guys had a long hard day on the front. All of them had a long chase after the 10-man break and again the temperatures were soaring. Every day in the Tour this year has been in very hot conditions. Lance looked a ton better today then he did yesterday. He almost looked fresh at the end today compared to yesterday, where he looked cooked.
Beloki's crash messed him up. He has a fractured top of the femur and his hip is very bad also. He is in the hospital getting looked at. The OLN television cameraman was there on the spot and said Beloki was in incredible pain and was crying for awhile. He actually passed out for a bit. This is a huge blow to ONCE and to the Tour de France. Beloki had been very aggressive this year making the races quite exciting.
clm
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