Astana’s Bad Day
Team Astana had a very bad day today. Their two team leaders started as favorites to win the Tour de France, but a couple of nasty crashes today leaves some doubt that they can pull it off. First to hit the ground today was Andreas Kloden. He is the co-leader of the team, and he went down early in the stage. He was able to get back into the main peloton without much trouble, but he was in some pain throughout the day. He is expected to be fine. The bigger crash was of Alexander Vinokourov. It seems that he may have been clipped by an officials motorcycle. He hit the ground very hard and has major road rash up the right side of his body. Cameras caught him right after the crash, and you could tell that he was very shaken. He used his whole team to try to make it back into the main field, but time ran out before he could get there. Vino lost over a minute today, leaving some serious work to do in the Alps if he wants to win this Tour.
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