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Armstrong Falls Near Tour de France Start

Posted on: Friday, 9 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

BONNEVAL, France - Lance Armstrong was thrown from his bike but not hurt in a crash involving a number of cyclists shortly after the start of the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Friday.

The five-time Tour champion quickly got back in the race and wasn't hurt, U.S. Postal Service team manager Johan Bruyneel told French television.

It was not immediately known what caused the crash, which occurred about 45 minutes into the stage.

Armstrong's spill came one day after the five-time champion gave up the lead in the Tour to conserve energy for the finish. The 32-year-old Texan was 24th in the fifth stage Thursday, dropping to sixth overall - 9 minutes, 35 seconds behind Frenchman Thomas Voeckler.

Also Friday, two of cycling's best sprinters withdrew as a crash-filled first week of the race drew to a close.

Italians Alessandro Petacchi and Mario Cipollini were forced out of the race due to injury before the start of Friday's stage, a 122-mile run from Bonneval to Angers, one of the flattest stages, which was expected to favor the speedy Italians.

The absence of the sprinters was a blow to the Tour following a week of mishaps and crashes.

"It's the flop of the first week," assistant Tour director Christian Prudhomme, said. "The Petacchi-Cipollini duel fell short. Zero."

Petacchi, the sprint king of last year's Tour, withdrew after injuring his left shoulder in a crash on rain-soaked pavement during Thursday's fifth stage from Amiens to Chartres, according to a Fassa Bortolo team manager.

Mario Cipollini, a former world champion riding for Domina Vacanze, withdrew because of an injury to his left leg sustained in the Giro d'Italia in May.

They were among more than 180 challengers trying to deny Armstrong another Tour title.

After finishing Thursday's stage, Armstrong said he would skip the Athens Olympics to spend more time children. The three-time Olympian said the five months of training he already has spent away from his children were enough.

"It's really hard to do and so I want to go home," said Armstrong, who was third in the time trial in the 2000 Sydney Games.

"I've done the Olympics many times and if I don't have 100 percent motivation for something that's an important event, a very important event, then I don't want to take somebody else's spot."

The decision to drop out of the lead was part of Armstrong's grand strategy in the three-week race. When the Tour veers into the Alps and climaxes with a punishing time trial, Armstrong wants to be ready.

Until then, Armstrong is willing to let second-tier riders such as Voeckler and his Brioches La Boulangere team top the leaderboard. Armstrong is confident he'll be back in front by the time the race finishes in Paris on July 25.

"Tactically, it's a great move for us with Brioches La Boulangere in the yellow jersey," Armstrong said. "Voeckler is a good young rider. He's French and I think it's a good thing."

Armstrong is most concerned about Germany's Jan Ullrich, the 1997 champion, and challengers such as Italy's Ivan Basso of CSC and American and former teammate Tyler Hamilton of Phonak.

Ullrich trails Armstrong by 55 seconds, a significant but not insurmountable gap.

"A minute's a lot in my opinion," Armstrong said. "The only reason that I say that is that if I reverse the roles, I would be thinking, 'Oh, man, I'm already a minute down.'"

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