... as Alexandre Vinokourov and Joseba Beloki had to experience today. Alexandre Vinokourov wins his first stage victory and closes the gap to Lance Armstrong to just 20 seconds, Joseba Beloki crashes badly and ends the Tour in an ambulance. On one hand, you're pleased about this year's very interesting Tour with many attacks, on the other hand, bad crashes are simply the price riders sometimes have to pay. In this case, it was probably just softened asphalt that tore at Joseba Beloki's rear wheel. Hopefully it looked worse than it actually is, so that he has to end this Tour but not his career :-(
Still, big praise for Alexandre Vinokourov for a great ride to the finish - the attack came at exactly the right time, his strength was already clearly visible, he saved everything well for the final attack. Wow.