Bradley Wiggins at the press conference (Image credit: AFP Photo)
The Tour de France is over for Team Sky's captain Bradley Wiggins. A crash with 35km to go in the race's seventh stage left the British champion with a fractured left collarbone.
At the time of his accident, Wiggins had been lying in sixth place, just 10 seconds off the yellow jersey of race leader Thor Hushovd.
The 31-year-old was on fine form for the Tour, having helped his team to third in last Sunday's team time trial before assisting in the squad's first stage win by teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen on stage 6.
"Bradley has broken his left collar bone. It is hugely disappointing news for him, and for the team," confirmed Team Sky manager David Brailsford.
"Bradley has been in the best shape of his life and worked exceptionally hard to be ready for this year's Tour de France. We were in no doubt as to the form he was in. Brad was climbing with the best climbers, time trialling with the best time trialers and once the race hit the mountains we were very confident that he was going to challenge for the overall. Unfortunately crashes happen in bike races.
"Our priority now as a team is to regroup and focus on the rest of this Tour. We still have eight world class riders in the team and they will be back out tomorrow, on the front foot and looking for more stage victories. There is still a lot of racing to be done between here and Paris."
Wiggins was one of dozens of riders to be caught up in the crash, which happened on a straight, wide open stretch of road. RadioShack's Chris Horner, another GC hopeful, was also hurt in the wreck and finished 12:41 down on stage winner Mark Cavendish.
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