SPA, Belgium — Lance Armstrong and dozens of other Tour de France riders were caught up in a series of crashes Monday during a rain-splattered second stage won by new race leader Sylvain Chavanel of France.
In one of the spills, Armstrong and defending Tour champion Alberto Contador of Spain tumbled to the asphalt on a slippery descent from the mid-grade Stockeu Pass toward the end of the 201-kilometre run from Brussels to Spa.
Both sustained scrapes but finished the stage and were OK, their teams said.
Armstrong returned to the RadioShack team bus with his team outfit torn and a bloody scrape on his thigh. Many riders believed a mixture of motor oil and water on the roads was to blame.
“You had people everywhere. It was surreal. When I got back on my bike ... I saw crash, after crash, after crash,” Armstrong said, noting riders laid out on the ground. “It was like war.”
It was a fitting, if perhaps unintended, reference. The Ardennes forest that the riders were crossing saw some of the bloodiest fighting during the Second World War.
Some riders said at least half of the peloton, composed of nearly 200 riders, had fallen. A post-stage medical report listed 23 as at least slightly injured during the day. Among them, sprint specialists Tyler Farrar of the United States and Robbie McEwen of Australia were taken to hospital for examination and treatment.
“There was no way to stay on the bike,” said Armstrong, who also sustained an abrasion on his hip. “There was something on the road ... I was scared. I think everybody was scared.”
RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel said Armstrong also hurt an elbow — though not the same elbow the seven-time Tour champion had injured in a crash in the Tour of California in May.
“Riding downhill was almost like ice-skating,” Bruyneel said, adding that RadioShack’s Andreas Kloeden and Levi Leipheimer also fell. “Almost half of the peloton crashed today,” Bruyneel said.
Equally unlucky was 2009 Tour runner-up Andy Schleck. The Luxembourg rider appeared to injure his elbows in another spill. He returned to the race and rejoined the pack.
Chavanel collected his second career Tour stage victory after joining a small early breakaway group and then gradually distancing them. The 31-year-old Quick Step rider clocked four hours 40 minutes 48 seconds on the stage.
Chavanel took the race leader’s yellow jersey off Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara who, like Armstrong and Contador, trailed 3:56 in the main pack. Armstrong placed 54th and Contador was 81st.
The French leader had started the stage in 87th place overall, 59 seconds behind Cancellara.
“Pure happiness,” said Chavanel, choking up with emotion.
Aside from Chavanel’s vault to first place, the top standings didn’t change. Cancellara now trails the Frenchman by 2 minutes, 57 seconds, with Germany’s Tony Martin in third place, 3:07 back.
Britain’s David Millar is fourth, 3:17 back, and Armstrong dropped a notch to fifth and is 3:19 back. Contador is seventh 3:24 behind.
Victoria’s Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions is 27th, 3:43 behind after finishing 48th Monday. Toronto’s Michael Barry of Sky is 84th overall, 4:05 behind. He was 122nd on the second stage.
The spills wreaked havoc on organizers and riders alike.
After Schleck dropped several minutes back of the pack — threatening his Tour title ambitions — the main bunch appeared to slow down, with his Saxo Bank teammate Cancellara at the front.
Between Schleck, under an escort from his older brother and teammate Frank, and Chavanel’s group at the front, confusion broke out in the pack about how to respond in a sporting and competitive way.
“There was a group up the road, we didn’t know what to do,” Armstrong said. “The Schlecks were behind, some other guys were behind. It was sort of a conflict about what to do then.”
With so many riders downed in the crashes, the thought of cancelling the stage altogether briefly crossed the minds of race organizers, the course director said. But under the race rules, the spills were too spread out to warrant a cancellation.
Cancellara, who as race leader can act as “spokesman” for the pack, asked Tour organizers not to award points for a final sprint out of respect for the fallen riders, course director Jean-Francois Pescheux said.
Tour organizers called it a show of good sportsmanship.
That request, made with just two kilometres left, was honoured by the race jury — and in effect slowed down the finish. It will have deprived some sprinters of points in the competition for the green jersey, which is awarded to the race’s best sprinter.
Thor Hushovd of the Canadian-owned Cervelo TestTeam who is defending the green jersey this year was not happy after a seventh-place finish.
“I feel frustrated by what happened today,” Hushovd said. “Our team was working hard and we would have had a good chance for victory. I feel like they have taken something away from us today. There were a few sprinters who did not make it to the front group, but there was no reason to not contest the sprint today. Everyone made a gentleman’s agreement not to sprint, but I lost an important opportunity to try to win the stage and gain points.”
After two straight stages with multiple crashes, the stage Tuesday takes riders on what had already been billed as the most treacherous in Week 1 — a 213-kilometre ride from Wanze Arenberg to Porte du Hainaut, featuring seven bumpy cobblestone patches.
The Tour ends July 25 in Paris.
— With files from The Canadian Press