American Leipheimer Is Out Of The Tour

Team Astana got some bad news before stage 13 started. Near the end of stage 12, American Levi Leipheimer crashed on a curve. At the time, he didn't think it was serious, and he finished the race. But this morning, he couldn't grip his handlebars and an x-ray showed he had a broken wrist. Even though he was in fourth place and a race favorite, he had to drop out of the race.

There was a breakaway that survived today, but it really didn't shake up the race leaders. Astana strung out the field on the catagorey 1 climb, but all the race leaders were able to stay with them so they backed off and let much of the peloton come back together. It looks like they decided to wait until the Alps in a few days to make their move to place either Contador or Armstrong in the race lead. Both looked very strong today.

The green jersey did change hands again today. While Cavendish was not able to stay with the peloton, Hushovd was able to finish in sixth place. While Hushovd may not be as fast as Cavendish in a sprint, he is the stronger rider. As I said before, the green jersey may not be won until the last stage is run in Paris.

Stage 13 also resulted in Italian Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas taking the lead for the polka dot jersey. But he only has a small lead over Spaniard Egoi Martinez, and the winner of that jersey won't be decided until the Alps next week. Today's stage winner was German Heinrich Haussler (pictured) of Cervelo. Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (OVERALL LEADERS)
1. Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R)
2. Alberto Contador (Astana)..........0.06
3. Lance Armstrong (Astana)..........0.08
4. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin)..........0.46
5. Andreas Kloden (Astana)..........0.54
6. Tony Martin (Columbia)..........1.00
7. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin)..........1.24
8. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)..........1.49
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas)..........1.54
10. Luis Sanchez (Caisse)..........2.16

GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)..........205 pts
2. Mark Cavendish (Columbia)..........200 pts
3. Jose Rojas (Caisse)..........116 pts
4. Tyler Farrar (Garmin)..........110 pts
5. Gerald Ciolek (Milram)..........100 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)..........98 pts
2. Egoi Martinez (Euskadi)..........95 pts
3. Brice Feillu (Agritubel)..........64 pts
4. Christophe Kern (Cofidis)..........59 pts
5. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step)..........53 pts

TEAM LEADERS
1. Saxo Bank
2. AG2R..........0.34
3. Astana..........0.37
4. Milram..........0.44
5. Columbia..........5.19