From http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7008816?MSNHPHMA
Team Astana riders Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloeden were taken to the hospital after being injured in separate crashes during the 113-mile trek from the Burgundy town of Chablis to Autun.
Vinokourov lost crucial seconds in a crash with 15 miles to go.
“I don’t know (what happened),” Vinokourov said. “My chain came off.”
With both knees bleeding and a cut on his right buttock, Vinokourov attempted to catch up to the main pack, escorted by six Astana teammates. But the peloton sped ahead to exploit his delay.
The Kazakh rider lost 1 minute, 20 seconds after coming into the stage in 12th place, trailing Cancellara by 50 seconds.
Kloeden fell sideways into a ditch about 45.3 miles from the end. He got up and was soon back into the pack.
Astana sporting director Marc Biver said Kloeden and Vinokourov were taken to a nearby hospital.
“I am more worried about Kloeden, who seems to (have) a fracture of the coccyx,” Biver said.
Tomorow is a flat stage, but Sat finishes with a cat 1 climb, so if they start tomorrow I bet the GC guys make them hurt on that climb. but maybe they are not as hurt as the team is letting on. I hope they start tomorrow because they should make the race more exciting.
If Lance Armstrong went down like Vino did today, do you think the peloton presses on or waits for him? I’d say they’d wait. I guess this is pretty different since Vino is a favorite, but not THE favorite like when Lance was riding.
there is no way the peloton waits for Lance either. If it was the yellow jersey maybe. It is way too early in the race for any real GC guys to have an impact. The peloton was chasing down a break that couldve shaken the yellow jersey situation.
Lance got tangled up with Jaja in the first week in 2003 or 04 I think and the peloton did not wait. That was a little later in the stage though. I don’t think there is much waiting until the GC takes shape.
Lance got tangled up with Jaja in the first week in 2003 or 04 I think and the peloton did not wait. That was a little later in the stage though. I don’t think there is much waiting until the GC takes shape.
Agreed. I don’t think those gentleman’s agreements take shape until later when the GC is more established. It’s still early days. Vino’s fall happend at a very unfortunate time - the front of the pack was going all-out at that point to catch the break and that’s why he lost so much time. Brave and gutsy for him to shake it off and get the team organized to pace him back, but he still finished over a minute down which is unfortunate.
Bizarre that Kloden may be in worse shape. His fall looked rather benign. One of those low speed tumbles into the grass. He bounced back up and was back in the pack in no time.
Yep - features a lot on the Hell on Wheels DVD. If I remember he could cope on the flats but had to drop out when they hit the mountains because the extra pressure hurt to much. He must be gutted.
For the record, the group did NOT wait for Lance and it was in 2002, the only time he lost time due to a mishap like today. Roberto Heras fell into Lance’s rear wheel and it took a while for Lance to get going again. It was a slight uphill finish like today, and Lance had to chase-losing time to the lead group (about 35 seconds). But it didn’t happen until about 5k to go.
Two days later, he lost his first ‘post-cancer’ long TT (to Botero?), possibly as a result of the match-burning. In situations like this, no one waits for anyone, as cbritri said, until the GC starts to take shape.
As for Kloden, it always seem that the slower, more seemingly ‘benign’ falls are the worst!
