Sixth Stage Is a Crash Course

ANGERS, France —  A massive crash near the finish of Stage 6 caused a big scare Friday in what quickly is becoming the Tour de Ambulance.

As the Tour de France course abruptly narrowed just under the arch with the red flag that tells riders they have one kilometer to go, two riders, Australia’s Robbie McEwen and Austria’s Rene Haselbacher, tangled and started a huge chain reaction. The first group of riders behind the duo crashed hard while others piled up accordion-style behind them until the last came to a standing stop on their bikes.

In a scenario similar to last year’s crash in Stage 1, several team leaders were caught up in the wreck despite being near the front of the peloton, the place conventional cycling wisdom says is the safest.

“Coming in, they have the barriers really tight and you have 200 guys racing through there at 40 miles per hour,” defending champion Lance Armstrong said. “I don’t know what they’re thinking. You’re going to have crashes.”

Armstrong was shaken up but not hurt in that smash-up, although he banged his hip and arm in another crash early in the stage.

Others who went down included Tyler Hamilton, who had a frightening flashback to a year ago this week, when he broke his collarbone on the Tour’s second day.

This time around, he tumbled over the handlebars, scraped his back and cracked his helmet. In comments on the Phonak team website, Hamilton called the day “frustrating.”

“I think we deserve better finishes than that,” he said.

“He was more angry than anything,” his wife, Haven Hamilton, said from the couple’s home in Girona, Spain. “He feels like people should have learned their lesson last year and that these sprint finishes should be on wide roads with straightaways.”

Every rider in the race was given the same finishing time under the Tour’s long-standing rule governing crashes in the final kilometer, so the standings remain the same as the previous day.

That gave riders such as Hamilton a chance to collect their wits, dust themselves off and roll slowly across the finish line without worrying about the seconds ticking away. U.S. Postal Service teammate George Hincapie escorted Armstrong.

Another rider held a teammate’s torn shorts together for modesty’s sake.

Only the first 15 or 20 riders in the peloton made it through unscathed, although amazingly, few behind them were badly hurt.

Haselbacher, who rides for the German Gerolsteiner team, broke three ribs and his nose. Rabobank team leader Levi Leipheimer has a bruised right arm and hand and CSC’s Bobby Julich limped in among the last riders, banged up but with no apparent fractures.

Belgium’s Tom Boonen won his first Tour de France stage and young French hope Thomas Voeckler retained the overall lead.

Wet and windy weather as the race moved west from Belgium across northern France has caused more than the normal number of crashes. The Tour’s first week is known as an especially dangerous one because of the riders’ fresh legs, nerves and the sprinters’ drive to win stages before the race hits the mountains.

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Stage 6 at a Glance

The sixth stage of the 91st Tour de France:

* Stage: A 122-mile, flat, slightly downhill stretch from Bonneval to Angers, France.

* Winner: Tom Boonen, Belgium, Quick Step-Davitamon, 4 hours, 33 minutes, 41 seconds.

* How others fared: Lance Armstrong, U.S., finished 34th, in the same time; Germany’s Jan Ullrich finished 26th, same time.

* Yellow jersey: French cyclist Thomas Voeckler of Brioches La Boulangere holds on to the leader’s shirt.

* Quote of the day: “You hit the brakes, but bikes don’t stop that fast, so I just went over.” -- Armstrong, discussing his crash early into the stage.

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OVERALL LEADERS

1. Thomas Voeckler, France 24:37:30

2. Stuart O’Grady, Australia 3:01 behind

3. Sandy Casar, France 4:06 behind

4. Magnus Backstedt, Sweden 6:06 behind

5. Jakob Piil, Denmark 6:58 behind

6. Lance Armstrong, U.S. 9:35 behind