Velasco crashes out

Euskaltel's already less than stellar Tour campaign went from bad to worse today as Iván Velasco broke his right collarbone and will not take to the start tomorrow. The strong climber came a cropper with approximately 15km to go on the stage to Cap Fréhel and immediately clutched his right shoulder. Despite quite obviously having broken his collarbone, to his great credit he got back up and finished the stage. He was transported to a local hospital in Saint Malo where the fracture was confirmed though, meaning Samu will lose one of his right-hand men for the mountain stages. A downbeat Velasco told the team's website that scans had confirmed his right collarbone was broken, and that he was "sad" to leave the race so early on. "I arrived in France in good shape and wanted to do a good race, and I think I would have had an important role to play in the mountains", the ever-modest Arrasate native told www.fundacioneuskadi.com. "It's so bad having to leave this early. The team has been so strong and it pains me that I can't help them out anymore".

Aside from Velasco's unlucky break, the team came through this crash-marred fifth stage reasonably unscathed. Samu was once again taken care of expertly and crossed the line inside the peloton along with Verdugo, Martínez and A and R Pérez. Txurruka ended up some 25 seconds down, while Urtasun ceded 1:49 and Izagirre 8:33.