Leipheimer Breaks Wrist, Withdraws From Tour

Levi Leipheimer has withdrawn from the Tour de France with a broken wrist.  He suffered the injury in a crash with less than 2km to go in the stage yesterday.  Levi confirmed his withdrawal from the race via his Twitter account.  The Astana press agent, Philippe Maertens, confirmed the injury this morning.  He said, “He wasn’t too bad last night but this morning, the pain was too much,” he said. We took him to the hospital in Vittel, where scans revealed a transversal fracture of the scaphoid bone of the wrist. He is still in hospital now. He will certainly want to go home as soon as possible, but we haven’t organized a flight yet.”

The scaphoid bone is one of the small bones that connect the larger bones of the lower arm to the hand, and a break like this can be very painful.  The pain and inflammation from a break like this cause an inability to move the hand or wrist. 

Leipheimer’s withdrawal is bad news for Team Astana.  On the eve of heading into the Alps, Leipheimer was likely Lance Armstrong’s most loyal and able helpers to get up the big mountains.  The team is still stacked with strong climbers, but Leipheimer was the most fit and talented of the super-domestiques.  His loss is definitely a blow to the team’s chances of winning the overall race.

17 July 2009 | 2009 Tour de France | Comments