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| | Thursday, July 13 Quiet day on France's roads | ||||||
| By Andrew Hood ABC Sports Online REVEL, France -- Following the fireworks of Monday's epic stage in the Pyrénées, Tuesday was an anti-climatic day in the 2000 Tour de France. That was just fine for race leader Lance Armstrong. Armstrong delivered what could have been the knockout punch when the defending Tour champion blew away the world's best racers in the mountains on Monday. While the U.S. Postal Service team didn't open any bottles of champagne Monday night, they certainly put some on ice.
How the Tour favorites stand after Tuesday's 11th stage:: Lance Armstrong: First place Jan Ullrich: 2nd, 4:14 behind Richard Virenque: 11th, 6:59 behind Alex Zülle: 14th, 7:22 behind Laurent Jalabert: 18th, 8:01 behind Marco Pantani: 24th, 10:34 behind Bobby Julich: 37th, 14:11 behind Chann McRae: 97th overall, 40:23 behind Vaughters banged up The loneliest place for an American bike racer is in a European hospital after a crash. Instead of finishing Monday's stage, Jonathan Vaughters was laying in a hospital bed in Lourdes. Vaughters crashed headfirst into a concrete barrier when his front tire slipped on a rain-slicked corner on a descent off the first major climb of the day. Vaughters was knocked unconscious and suffered cuts to his lip, nose, forehead, elbow and knee. Only his helmet protected him from more serious injuries. "The worse thing is I'll never know how I would have done. You look at how everyone did today, and I've beat those guys all year," Vaughters said. "I haven't crashed all year and now I crash in the Tour." Vaughters says he feels "cursed" during the Tour. In 1998, he missed making the U.S. Postal Tour team when he crashed a month before the race. Last year, he crashed out during the second stage on the infamous Passage du Gois. "I just have some bad luck in the Tour. Maybe I am cursed. I really wanted to have a good result this year," said Vaughters, now racing on the Credit Agricole team. He traveled to Paris on Tuesday and is scheduled to return home to Colorado on Wednesday. Tough day for McRae Austin's Chann McRae suffered his way through Monday's epic four-climb stage in the Pyrénées. McRae was hoping for better things in his Tour debut. "It was a bad day, that's for sure. I just didn't have the legs. I really don't like rain and cold and it was a lot of both," McRae said Tuesday morning. "There's plenty of more mountain stages, so hopefully it will get better." Tougher for Julich American Bobby Julich was also hoping for big things Monday. Instead, the Colorado resident suffered on the final climb to Hautacam. Julich was in the same group as Armstrong at the bottom of the climb, but lost more than 12 minutes in the final push to the summit. Julich said he missed grabbing his jacket at the top of the Col d'Aubisque and became nearly hypothermic on the long, cold descent to the foot of Hautacam. Third overall in 1998, Julich crashed out midway through last year's Tour. He put his entire season on the line for a strong result at the Tour. Clean so far The ICU announced that all the anti-doping tests through the opening five days of the Tour have been negative. The jerseys: Armstrong retained the overall lead. Erik Zabel, a German on the Telekom team, retained the green points jersey. Javier Otxoa, a Spanish rider on the Kelme team, retained the mountain jersey. Francisco Mancebo, a Spanish rider on the Banesto team, retained the under-25 jersey. Rabobank leads the team competition. | ALSO SEE Armstrong keeps overall lead in Tour de France Ullrich team chief under Armstrong's spell Stage Eleven results AUDIO/VIDEO   Erik Dekker wins the battle over Santiago Botero to take Stage 11.avi: 1855 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Lance Armstrong finshes with the main pack and keeps the yellow jersey.avi: 759 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | ||||||
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