Another crash hurts the chances of some Tour favorites

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Mid-race crashes continued to spoil the chances of some favorites at the Tour de France on Friday while Mark Cavendish won his second stage this year — the 17th of his career.

Britain's Bradley Wiggins (Sky) abandoned the race with a broken collarbone in a crash that cost many of the favorites — including Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner (RadioShack) — at least 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, Norway's Thor Hushovd stayed away from the disaster and survived to hold onto the yellow jersey for another day. He has finished in the top 10 every stage so far.

The big crash

Friday's big crash occurred about 37km from the finish in the 218km (133 miles) stage 7 route from Le Mans to Châteauroux.

Eighty cyclists missed the crash to finish behind the fast-moving HTC-HighRoad train, while about 90 lost anywhere from 3 to 12 minutes.

Survivors

Defending champion Alberto Contador (SaxoBank) was among those lucky cyclists who missed the collision, rising 10 places from 34th to 24th in one day, still 1:42 behind the leader. He lost serious time in Stage 1 after his involvement in a crash.

Also ahead of the crash were Cadel Evans (BMC) Frank and Andy Schleck (Leopard), and David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) who all retained their top positions in the overall standings.

Team RadioShack's Andreas Kloden (Germany) also survived the crash, and is now that team's highest placed rider and the undisputed team leader.

Victims

Among the cyclists going down was Wiggins, a contender this year was who placed 6th overall, just 10 seconds behind the leader. He had to abandon.

The crash all but ended Leipheimer's chances as well. He lost more than a minute on Thursday in a solo spill; add to that the 3 minutes on Friday. He's dropped from 10 seconds behind the leader at the start of Stage 6 to 4:29 behind at the end of Stage 7.

Horner

Losing still more time was Horner, who at 12 seconds behind was the best placed American among the contenders. He had difficulty after the crash and was the last cyclist to cross the finish line.

In fact, this video shows that he didn't know where he was after the crash or why he finished so far behind. He keeps on saying, “I don't understand.” It's scary to see such results of a concussion.  RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel said that Horner was going to the hospital for a scan and might not start Stage 8 on Saturday.

He ended the day 12:59 behind the leader.

Garmin-Cervelo teammates Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) and Tyler Farrar (US) were also caught behind the crash, Farrar appearing to injure his leg.

Sprint

That eliminated one of Cavendish's rivals for the finishing sprint in Châteauroux. His HTC-HighRoad team drove hard at the front of the surviving peloton and approached the finish in its textbook lead-out train.

Still, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) and Andre Greipel (Omega) challenged Cavendish for the victory, but the “Manx Missile” won handily.

Not only did the HTC-HighRoad lead-out deliver Cavendish to the line for a stage victory, but it also hurt the overall chances of many of those cyclists caught behind. The chasers were 1:42 behind the main group with 10km remaining in the race, but lost another 1:20 or so after HighRoad upped the speed at the end.

Top 10
overall

1 Thor Hushovd (Nor)
Team Garmin-Cervelo
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team — 1
second
3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek — 4 seconds

4 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo — 8
seconds
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack — 10
seconds
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek — 12 seconds
7 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek — 12 seconds
8 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC HighRoad — 13 seconds
9 Peter Velits (Svk) HTC High Road — 13 seconds
10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank — 20 seconds

….

24. Alberto Contador (Spa) SaxoBank — 1:42