SHOOT: Looks like he hurt his hip. He has had Lady Luck smile on him in the 8 previous Tour de France races where he's always managed to avoid illness, crashes etc. Now the test is to find new levels of success, perhaps go for a stage win, find someway to make the most of it. I've trained for Ironman races, so the disappointment of having all those hours of training and time invested unravel in this way is gut wrenching. But you have to find a way to rise above that deep disappointment. Make no mistake, it's hard.
Bruyneel played down suggestions that Landis's allegations had put extra pressure on Armstrong.
"That's got nothing to do with it," said Bruyneel. "He had a setback at the start of the stage when he almost crashed trying to avoid a fall in front of him, then 10km before the climb to (the Col de) Ramaz he had quite a heavy crash.
"Once he was on the Ramaz he was in difficulty. On the last climb (to Avoriaz) he told me he'd taken quite a big knock to his hip, and that it was impossible to produce the power he needed to make it back.
"Once he was behind and he had no chance of coming back, he effectively threw in the towel."
In between the Ramaz and Avoriaz, Armstrong fell again when two Euskaltel riders tumbled in front of him as they crested the easy, category three climb at Les Gets. After the American's setbacks on stage three's ride over the cobbles to Arenberg, where he suffered a puncture and lost time to all his rivals, Bruyneel said it couldn't have been a worst first week.
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clipped from www.bikeradar.com
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