Tom Danielson
An arrow-straight, level stretch of French road spelled doom for Garmin-Sharp’s chances at the Tour de France as a huge crash splintered the peloton about 15 miles from the finish of Stage 6 on Friday.
Garmin’s Tom Danielson (USA) went down hard for the second time in this year’s Tour. Already suffering from a separated shoulder, he withdrew from the race. Three other cyclists abandoned due to the crash also.
Meanwhile, the team’s other contender for the General Classification, British Columbia’s Ryder Hesjedal, got caught behind the crash and lost time over 13 minutes.
When the day started, he was sitting in 9th place, 18 seconds behind the leader. Now he’s in 108 place, 13:38 out of first place.
Perhaps reacting to the trauma to his team, David Zabriskie and three other cyclists attacked in the closing kilometers, and the Utah native sprinted away from them about 1 1/2 miles from the finish. The peloton caught him about a mile from the finish, but he was awarded the “most combative” cyclist of the stage.
Frank Schleck, the team leader for RadioShack, also lost serious time, dropping to 37th place at 2:53 behind. Meanwhile, his teammate Fabian Cancellara, must have been in the front of the peloton as he missed the crash and successfully defended the yellow jersey for another day.
Winning the stage was Peter Sagan (Liquigas), his third of this year’s Tour de France.
Top 10 overall
| 1. | SUI CANCELLARA Fabian | 12 | RADIOSHACK-NISSAN | 29h 22′ 36” | |
| 2. | GBR WIGGINS Bradley | 101 | SKY PROCYCLING | 29h 22′ 43” | + 00′ 07” |
| 3. | FRA CHAVANEL Sylvain | 192 | OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP | 29h 22′ 43” | + 00′ 07” |
| 4. | USA VAN GARDEREN Tejay | 9 | BMC RACING TEAM | 29h 22′ 46” | + 00′ 10” |
| 5. | RUS MENCHOV Denis | 131 | KATUSHA TEAM | 29h 22′ 49” | + 00′ 13” |
| 6. | AUS EVANS Cadel | 1 | BMC RACING TEAM | 29h 22′ 53” | + 00′ 17” |
| 7. | ITA NIBALI Vincenzo | 51 | LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE | 29h 22′ 54” | + 00′ 18” |
| 8. | SVK SAGAN Peter | 57 | LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE | 29h 22′ 55” | + 00′ 19” |
| 9. | GER KLÖDEN Andréas | 15 | RADIOSHACK-NISSAN | 29h 22′ 55” | + 00′ 19” |
| 10. | BEL MONFORT Maxime | 16 | RADIOSHACK-NISSAN | 29h 22′ 58” | + 00′ 22” |
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