Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/7/2011

Crashes are common sights in the first week of the Tour, especially on the northwestern coasts of France in Brittany and Normandy, where, if the crosswinds  don't drive you into the ditches of the narrow roads, the slick roads caused by summer storms will. One rider caught in a ditch on stage 6 was Levi Leipheimer, who was pinned up against a guardrail in the run-up to the finish line:

“It was just a silly crash. We knew there was about a kilometer-and-a-half uphill at the end, so it was important to be right at the front. I was trying to shoot through some gaps, and one time it just closed up on me and I was pinned against the guardrail. I kinda surfed the guardrail for like 20 meters, and thankfully that slowed me down and I just fell into the dirt.”

Thanks to the rain, the rail was very slick, and Levi managed to slide along it with his right calf, before jumping off his bike. Some reporters likened it to ballet, while other riders, notably Christian Vande Velde, were impressed Levi was able to keep the bike up for so long.