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Fabian Cancellara has been forced to abandon the Tour de France with back problems, breaking his third and fourth lumbar vertebrae after today's big crash in the Tour de France. He finished the stage 12 minutes behind winner Joaquím Rodríguez on the Mur du Huy, but looked injured, possibly concussed as he faded through the groups. It will be his third DNS in the Tour de France, after leaving on the rest day last year, but he has never failed to finish a Tour de France stage he has started, which is admittedly rather impressive. He also fractured vertebrae in E3 Harelbeke, and hopefully he will not suffer more repercussions from that spill in April. Is it his last Tour de France? He has said it is likely, though this crash just may change things.
FDJ's William Bonnet has suffered even more serious injuries. He was the first to go down in the crash, and in addition to the originally diagnosed concussion, he suffered a fracture of his third cervical vertebra, in his neck, a serious though not life-threatening injury. He abandoned the stage after the crash. Tom Dumoulin broke his shoulder in the crash, the Giant rider crashing out while wearing the white jersey. His team mate Ramon Sinkeldam needed to get stitches in his arm, but will start tomorrow.
It's also been a bad day for Orica-GreenEDGE. Simon Gerrans and Daryl Impey, both of their yellow jersey holders from 2013, both did not finish the stage, Gerrans breaking his wrist, after ploughing into a pile of crashed riders at speed. Impey was in the pile, and had broken his collarbone. Sprinter Michael Matthews finished dead last on the stage, seven minutes behind anyone else, and may not start tomorrow.
The other rider to not finish was Katusha's Dmitrii Kozonchuk, who also was very badly injured after crashing two kilometres after the original pile up. He broke his scapula and his collarbone.
Laurens Ten Dam was reported to have abandoned the Tour directly after the crash, and his bike was indeed on the car rack, but at the last minute he decided to continue, and finished in pain, but finished, and will start tomorrow in a great show of bravery from the Dutchman.
Mikel Landa has been reported by L'Equipe to be very close to agreeing a deal with Movistar. Landa, who broke through with third in the Giro, winning two stages this year will likely demand a better contract than he is on with Astana, and some leadership duties, perhaps in the Giro again.
Also in L'Equipe is a story of Richie Porte moving to BMC next year. It's a brave move for the American outfit, choosing Porte, who only has one GT top-10 in several tries, and went to the Giro this year as a leader before a lot of misfortune, as tends to happen the Australian. He tends to have bad days, but BMC will hope that he strings three weeks together.
Finally, Astana have been suspended from the MPCC after letting Lars Boom start the Tour despite breaking MPCC regulations with a low cortisol level. Who's surprised? Not Vino. Who cares? Probably not Vino.