SAINT-FLOUR, France — Riders were sprawled over the course Sunday. One wound up in a ditch, another with a busted leg. Everyone, it seemed, needed ice, and a rest day couldn’t come soon enough.
The bleeding and battered Tour de France field endured its worst day yet of crashes, a strange and dangerous ordeal in which even a car took out riders.
When cyclists ease their aching bones today on their day off after nine frenzied and punishing stages, Alexandre Vino-kourov will be waking up several hundred miles away in a Paris hospital after surgery on a fractured thigh bone.
Defending champion Alberto Contador’s right knee will be bathed in ice, and Juan Antonio Flecha’s legs will be bruised and scabbed after he was slammed by a car late in Sunday’s stage.
“It is too bad to see riders crashing out of the race like this,” two-time Tour runner-up Andy Schleck said.
Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez won the ninth stage after a long breakaway in the second day of mountains, and France’s Thomas Voeckler took the yellow jersey from Thor Hushovd of the Boulder-based Garmin-Cervelo team. But they left plenty of wreckage behind them.
Cyclists expect any number of obstacles during this three-week showcase — wet roads, extreme heat, dehydration, exhaustion, crashes. Getting sent airborne by a Tour car is not one of them.
But that’s what happened to Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland as they entered the final stretch of the 129-mile route from Issoire to Saint-Flour in the Massif Central. They were in a five-man front group that included Voeckler, Sanchez and France’s Sandy Casar.
If Vinokourov’s crash (in which he ended up in a ditch) that involved about 30 other riders midway through the stage was not scary enough, the sight of an out-of-control car swerving right into Flecha was perplexing.
The impact hit Flecha like a shovel, sending the Spaniard flying sideways into Hoogerland. Hoogerland then soared upward, just scraping a barbed wire fence. Had the Dutchman hit that face-first, the damage could have been gruesome.
Contador crashed for the second time in five days. The three-time defending champion, who had hurt his right knee during the fifth stage, fell early Sunday but recovered to finish the stage in 12th place.
Tour de France
A brief look at Sunday’s ninth stage:
Stage: A 129-mile, crash-marred stage from Issoire to Saint-Flour. Veteran Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov was caught in a massive pileup in a descent and had to pull out with a fractured thigh bone. Spain’s Juan Antonio Flecha was hit by a car late in the stage, taking down Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland with him. Both continued to ride.
Winner: Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez, after a long breakaway in the mountains of Massif Central. Sanchez beat Frenchmen Thomas Voeckler and Sandy Casar, by five and 13 seconds.
Yellow jersey: Voeckler, who took the overall lead from Thor Hushovd of Norway. Voeckler, who is not considered a contender for the title, leads Sanchez by 1 minute, 49 seconds.
Where is Alberto Contador? The three-time winner banged his right knee after an early spill. He is 16th overall, 4:07 behind Voeckler.
Quote of the day: “I’m a bit bothered with my knee. I fell on the same knee that I hurt when I crashed the previous times. I’m actually quite worried because I have pain in that knee. I’m going to need to recover from that. I’m not feeling great.” — Contador
Next stage: Today is a rest day. Tuesday’s 98-mile stage will take riders from Aurillac to Carmaux. The course features hills but no major difficulty.
The Associated Press
