Having already lost Janez Brajkovic and Chris Horner due to crashes in the opening week of the race, and seen Levi Leipheimer lose time to another fall, the RadioShack team was hit by a further blow today when Andreas Klöden was forced to pull out of the race.
The German rider fell heavily on Sunday, going down in the same crash which ended the Tour participation of Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma Lotto). He continued onwards but his chance of a high finish was ruined due to the lost time.
Klöden suffered bad bruising to his back in the fall and while X-rays ruled out any fractures, he was in pain for several days. He aggravated the condition yesterday when he fell again, hitting the deck on the descent of the Hourquette d’Ancizan. He trailed in over eight minutes back and dropped to 24th overall.
Klöden was in difficult from the start of today’s stage to Lourdes, and finally pulled out approximately 30 kilometres after the start in Pau. He had to be helped from his bike and was in pain getting into the team car.
Speaking at the end of yesterday’s stage, general manager Johan Bruyneel spoke of his frustration. “It’s just too much bad luck at this year’s Tour. The first days we were lucky and then all the bad luck came to us. Klodi was feeling ok today, coming back from the crash the other day, but then today he went down again on the first climb. We’ll see how he is tonight but we’re already down to six riders so there isn’t so much else we can do in this Tour de France.
“Levi looked ok but he’s still recovering from crashes too so he isn’t at his full potential. This is not what we came for. We are very disappointed so we need to come up with some other goals. We’ll keep trying. The GC is gone, the Teams classification is gone, so all that’s left is to try for a stage win. Klöden was in a good position when guys in front of him crashed and he went over them. Now he has hurt his shoulder and his leg. From then on it was a nightmare for him.”
Of the four designated leaders at the start of the race, only Leipheimer remains. He finished one minute 25 seconds back yesterday and started in Pau in 17th place overall, seven minutes 51 seconds back.
The team has lost four riders in all, with Yaroslav Popovych pulling out due to fever.
Other riders also pulled out today; Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) was a non starter, while Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha) and Lars Boom (Rabobank) dropped out during the stage.