Giro Stage 11: Cavendish wins, Leipheimer Falls, Horner retires [+ Lance's VIDEO]

Lance Before Stage 11.mov -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

SHOOT: Chris Horner is out after pulling a tendon during stage 10. Leipheimer fell today but apparently is okay. The big test is tomorrow. Leipheimer ought to wipe out his deficit of 1-40. He is in 4th place and should bump himself up after tomorrow.

Lance had this to say about stage 11 (on Twiiter): St 11 done. Pretty uneventful except for 2 things. @levi_leipheimer had a pretty nasty spill and it was hot. I think Levi will be ok tho.Tomorrow is the big/long time trial so let's hope he recovers well. It is a VERY difficult and technical tt.

clipped from www.cyclingweekly.co.uk Mark Cavendish gave himself an early birthday present when he won his second stage of the Giro d'Italia in Arenzano. On roads that will have been familiar to him following his victory in Milan-San Remo in March, Cavendish cruised off the wheel of his Columbia-Highroad team-mate in the final 200 metres to beat Garmin's Tyler Farrar. It was Columbia's fifth stage win of this race, following victory in the team time trial and early wins for Cavendish in Milan on Sunday and before that Edvald Boasson Hagen and Kanstantsin Siutsou. Columbia and Garmin had things under control as they came into the final kilometre and the sprint finish was as close to routine as these things get. Cavendish, who has ditched the bright, white Oakleys in favour of a more subdued pair in black, was all smiles as he clinched the ninth Grand Tour stage win of his career. Levi Leipheimer lost his Astana team-mate Chris Horner, who was unable to start the stage having crashed yesterday. Leipheimer suffered a spill

Giro: Chris Horner's brakes fail while going 50 mph downhill in the rain

SHOOT: Now this is good nail-biting journalism. Chris Horner, Armstrong's teammate describes a perilous descent in the rain on Stage 7. Armstrong - you can't help admiring him. Having broken a collar bone most people would expect him to play it safe. What does he do?

Horner: As we approached the descent the field was in full-gas mode. By now it was raining and 45 degrees. With every bit of road being used up, we were handle bar to handle bar fighting for position at 35 mph on wet, scary roads.

Astana teammate Lance Armstrong hit the front for us, stringing out the field by riding at 35 mph on the front. This helped to keep our team out of trouble and in good position at the front for the descent. On the descent we were up to 50 mph, and almost curb to curb, 10 to 12 guys across the road going all out in the rain.

Giro Stage 7: Watch the finish.

clipped from blog.oregonlive.com As we hit the tricky parts of the descent, the first hairpin started coming up quickly. I hit the brakes to set up for the corner, and NOTHING HAPPENED! Within seconds I was rubbing the rear tire of the rider directly in front of me at incredible speeds. At this point, I was really wishing that I made out my will before I left home. Time slowed down, and I knew that in the next second only two things could happen. One, I'm on the ground with something broken, or, two, the brakes would kick in and pull me back out of trouble. Luckily for me the brakes dried the rim enough that the pads could grab and start slowing me down. Now the only problem was that I still needed to survive 40 or 50 more hairpin turns in the next 30 miles before I would be safely at the finish. From this point on staying at the front and as safe as possible was the only thing on my mind.