Bad day for the tour. Roughly 60-70 riders went down on a decent on the Stockeu. Of those who went down were some heavyweight tour GC candidates Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions). The peleton, lead by Fabian Cancellara, finished today with no mass sprint for the finish to protest today's dangerous route.
'Mr Tough' - Andy Schleck, who demonstrated that skinny guys can hang tough with the best of them and not every fall results in a broken collarbone.
'Mr Unlucky' - Christian Vande Velde, who managed to lack a shred of luck once again and came down in the day's main crash ,finishing a long way behind the other general classification favourites.
'Mr Diplomacy' - Fabian Cancellara, who organised what appeared to be a show of rider solidarity seemingly about the stage's conditions.
Andy Schleck after crashing.
Putting a lighter spin on today's events, Cyclingnews.com awarded a 'stage award' to the following riders:
Mr Perpetual Motion' - Sylvain Chavanel, who showed what it means to be a baroudeur and go for broke, even with only a faint hope of winning something.
'Mr Tough' - Andy Schleck, who demonstrated that skinny guys can hang tough with the best of them and not every fall results in a broken collarbone.
'Mr Unlucky' - Christian Vande Velde, who managed to lack a shred of luck once again and came down in the day's main crash ,finishing a long way behind the other general classification favourites.
'Mr Diplomacy' - Fabian Cancellara, who organised what appeared to be a show of rider solidarity seemingly about the stage's conditions.