American Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France, left Thursday’s Amgen Tour of California after an accident in the fifth stage of the cycling test, said his team’s sporting director RadioShack, Johan Bruyneel.
“I am sorry to report that there was a great fall and Chechu (Rubiera) and Lance (Armstrong) were involved. Lance was forced to leave and went to the hospital to take X-rays”, Bruyneel said in a message via Twitter.
Armstrong, the defending champion of the test and his teammate Levi Leipheimer, as well as Stuart O’Grady estadouidense also were involved in the crash, which occurred near the game in the town of Visalia.
Armstrong had started the day denying the allegations of doping former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his title of Tour de France 2006 after failing a doping test. Armstrong said “not worth even commenting” Landis’s accusations. ”I will not waste my time or yours,” he said.
“I have nothing to hide,” Armstrong said before the start of the fifth stage of the Californian twist, accompanied by Johan Bruyneel, general manager of his team, RadioShack, and Landis was also charged with being involved in doping maneuvers .
At the time of the accident, Armstrong marched in the sixteenth place, 27 seconds behind the leader and compatriot David Zabriskie.
Armstrong served test preparation for the Tour de France (July 3-25). In March last year, in another accident at the Tour of Castilla-León, Spain, he suffered a broken collarbone that disrupted his training for the big French turn, but he recover in time and participate.
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