Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

A Rocky Ride for Armstrong on Another Day of Crashes

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner, went from 5th to 18th on Tuesday. Credit...Pool photo by Fred Mons

ARENBERG, France — After Tuesday’s Stage 3 of the Tour de France, a stage expected to be the most treacherous of this race, Lance Armstrong boarded his team bus, looking stunned.

“You see a lot of times in these races, it’s a question of luck, good or bad, technical issues, flat tires and crashes,” Armstrong said later, after experiencing nearly all of those misfortunes in the 132-mile stage that began in Wanze, Belgium.

On a day that featured seven sections of cobblestones that rattled the riders physically and mentally, Armstrong did not crash. But he did take a tumble that, in some ways, may have been more painful for a man trying to win this race: he plummeted in the overall standings.

Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner, went to 18th from 5th, losing time to his top rivals. He is 2 minutes 30 seconds behind the new race leader, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland.

Cancellara, who finished sixth, is 23 seconds ahead of the British rider Geraint Thomas in the overall standings. Cadel Evans of Australia, one of the Tour favorites, is third, 39 seconds back.

Thor Hushovd of Norway won the stage, outsprinting several other riders to the finish line. More than two minutes later, Armstrong crossed the line, looking like a beaten man, covered by a film of dust. He was in 32nd place.

“It’s the nature of the sport,” Armstrong said. “Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail. Today, I was the nail. I have 20 days now to be the hammer.”

Armstrong, though, was supposed to be relatively strong in Tuesday’s stage, which many riders said would be a disadvantage for climbers like Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck — two race favorites — because of their slight builds. Climbers are often not strong enough to take control of their bicycles as they bounce along the cobblestones.

But after the finish on Tuesday, one glance at Contador — the defending Tour champion and Armstrong’s archrival — showed that he had defied expectation. He was grinning.

Not only did he survive, he finished 13th. Contador is ninth over all, 1:40 behind Cancellara and 50 seconds ahead of Armstrong. Afterward, he would not comment on Armstrong’s performance or what it was like to pull ahead of him in the standings.

But his Astana team manager, Yvon Sanquer, said that Contador was content with what had unfolded.

“I think he knows what he has just accomplished,” Sanquer said. “But he knows this race is unpredictable. So many things can change in the Alps or the Pyrenees, so he is trying not to be too confident.”

What could change in the mountains, though, is that Contador and other climbers could gain time, not lose it. Schleck, another top climber, also is poised to benefit from the mountain stages.

Schleck finished fifth in Stage 3 and is sixth over all, 1:09 back. Yet he did not celebrate.

His older brother, Frank — who twice has finished fifth at the Tour — crashed hard on the fourth section of cobblestones, breaking his collarbone. He was forced to pull out of the race and will not be there to usher Andy through the mountain stages the way he did last year.

Image
Thor Hushovd of Norway won Tuesday’s stage of the Tour de France.Credit...Ian Langsdon/European Pressphoto Agency

“The day is bittersweet because I’m happy that I did well, but I’m really disappointed and sad about Frank,” Andy Schleck said. “I would like to have him with me, for sure, but I’m glad to be in the situation in the overall standings. I guess that’s the way things go sometimes.”

Most of the riders started out the day braced for unexpected, scary situations — broken bones, equipment failures or abandoned efforts.

For many riders, simply finishing was a victory. About half of the race’s 198 riders crashed in Stage 2, when what was probably oil made the road slick. It was the second consecutive day of dramatic crashes at the Tour.

On Tuesday, many riders climbed onto their bikes looking pained, some walking gingerly, others limping. About half of them had a bandaged wound.

The Garmin-Transitions team was the most battered. Five of its nine riders crashed Monday, including Christian Vande Velde, the team leader. He was forced to abandon the race after breaking two ribs.

On Tuesday, one of Garmin’s team doctors said he had used more than two dozen bandages to prepare the riders for Stage 3. And he made sure to have plenty more on hand.

Six of those bandages were used on Tyler Farrar, the team’s top sprinter. Farrar had crashed twice Monday, and X-rays revealed that he has a tiny bone fracture in his left wrist. Farrar started Stage 3, anyway. Holding on to the handlebars on rough, jarring roads was probably excruciating, and he ended up 134th.

If he needed medical help along the route, he would have had it. Some teams stationed their doctors in areas where riders were likely to crash. For Frank Schleck and others, that came in handy.

Two riders fell on their faces, resulting in bloody wounds. Another broke his left collarbone and elbow. Ten sustained less-serious injuries. And sometimes, a crash looked more serious than it was: one cyclist tumbled from his bike and flipped upside down into some shrubbery, which cushioned his fall.

Other riders, like Armstrong, were luckier, sustaining no injuries. Their bad luck manifested itself in other ways.

Armstrong had been riding well on the cobblestones until he was caught behind Frank Schleck’s crash.

In another section of cobblestones, Armstrong had a flat tire. Though he rode fiercely, zooming along the route as methodically as a machine, his effort was not enough.

Ahead of him, somewhere in the dusty distance, were Contador, Andy Schleck and Evans — all riders who have been on the Tour’s podium before.

“We have to keep our head up and take our chances on the climbs,” Armstrong said, referring to the mountain stages where he will probably need to attack to remain in contention. “Took a knock today, but we’re not going home.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rocky Ride for Armstrong On Another Day of Crashes. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT