Armstrong crashes out of Amgen Tour of California
RadioShack rider involved in early pile-up and off for x-rays
Lance Armstrong has quit the Amgen Tour of California after being involved in a crash during the early part of stage five.
The Texan was involved in a crash as the road narrowed after just a few kilometres of racing. According to reports he went down with several teammates including Levi Leipheimer and Chechu Rubiera. Riders from HTC-Columbia, BMC Racing, Fly V Australia and Rabobank were also caught up in the crash.
These include Bernhard Eisel (Team HTC-Columbia), Tony Martin (Team HTC-Columbia), Jakob Fuglsang and Stuart O’Grady (Team Saxo Bank), Paul Mach (Bissell), Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo Test Team), Lars Ytting Bak (Team HTC-Columbia), Will Routley (Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda), Marc De Maar (Unitedhealthcare Presented by Maxxis) and Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda).
All the riders got back up, including Armstrong and O’Grady. They and others got medical assistance from the race doctor but after a few kilometres both Armstrong and O’Grady retired.
Armstrong climbed into the lead RadioShack team car and team manager Johan Bruyneel confirmed via Twitter than Armstrong was being taken to hospital for x-rays.
More later.
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