Just when I thought one of those Tour de France breakaways was going to last 'til the finish, the leader hits the deck with less than a kilometer to go.
Christophe Mengin, who jumped ahead of the peloton 14 miles into the 123-mile stage between Troyes and Nancy, slipped on the wet pavement and crashed into the barriers within sight of the finish line. He brought down dozens of riders who plowed into him and each other.
Robbie McEwen, yesterday's stage winner and one of those who went down today, told OLN commentator Frankie Andreau, “It was just a big pile of bikes and I couldn't avoid it.”
In all honesty, Mengin might not have made it. Although he might have beat the peloton, which was closing fast, T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov had jumped across the gap and probably would have taken the stage win.
As it turned out, Vinokourov took second to Lorenzo Bernucci of Fassa Bortolo by virtue of his ability to avoid the crash. It was Bernucci first race win as a professional.
Another racer who avoided the crash was Lance Armstrong, who remains in first overall in the yellow jersey.
Although Bernucci won the stage, the big winner of today was Vinokourov. By moving ahead of the peloton in the the final mile or so and catching onto Mengin (all without crashing), he jumped from 7th place to 3rd place overall, and closed the gap to Armstrong from 1:21 this morning to 1:02 at the end of the day.
Vinokourov is one of the riders mentioned by Johan Bruyneel, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team's manager, as a major obstacle to Armstrong winning his 7th Tour de France.
Utah native David Zabriskie, who led the Tour de France in the yellow jersey until he crashed near the end of Tuesday's stage, has dropped all the way down to 141st overall, 9 minutes behind Armstrong. He lost nearly 8 minutes on today's stage.
Armstrong's main challengers and their positions: Vinokourov (3, T-Mobile) at 1:02; Ivan Basso (9, Team CSC) at 1:26; Jan Ullrich (13, T-Mobile) at 1:36.
The positions of other Americas: George Hincapie (2, Discovery Channel) at :55; Bobby Julich (5, Team CSC) 1:07; Floyd Landis (18, Phonak) 1:50; Levi Leipheimer (26, Gerolsteiner) 2:31; Fred Rodriguez (60, Davitamon) 3:57; Chris Horner (83, Saunier-Duval) 4:54; David Zabriskie (141, Team CSC) 9:05; Guido Trenti (149, QuickStep) 9:29.
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