Kloeden is last hope for unlucky Radioshack team

CHATEAUROUX, France, July 8 (Reuters) - Team Radioshack began the Tour de France with four leaders but after just seven days of hectic racing, German veteran Andreas Kloeden is their only realistic hope for a podium finish.

Slovenian Janez Brajkovic, the 2010 Criterium du Dauphine winner, quit on Wednesday with a broken collarbone and a concussion following a crash and on Friday Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner also suffered blows, the latter breaking his nose and suffering concussion.
Leipheimer was involved in his third crash since the Tour started last Saturday, while Horner, who won the Tour of California in May, briefly lost consciousness as he ended up in a ditch during the seventh stage.
Both riders managed to finish the stage but Leipheimer lost 3:06 while a dazed Horner crossed the line with a 12:41 deficit.
“It’s rotten luck, but it’s the race. It’s the Tour,” Radioshack sports director Alain Gallopin told reporters.
“Three days ago, I had four leaders, I know have only one — Kloeden.”
Kloeden, 36, twice finished second in the Tour de France, in 2004 and 2006.
“It’s unbelievable. At one point everything looked fine, and a little bit after you lose all your guys,” said team manager Johan Bruyneel.
“We still have Kloedi, he looks okay and was up there in the front. That looks good, it’s a shame we lost Jani. Levi is still okay. We are down to one leader, we’ll have the whole team around us and we’ll see how it goes.”
A big question mark was hanging over Horner, who lost consciousness in the crash that also sent Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia to the deck with some 40 kilometres left. Britain’s Bradley Wiggins also retired after the same pile-up.
“When I saw Chris he was lying in a ditch and was very shaken,” Bruyneel said.
“He could finish the stage, because physically his body is okay, with only a few bruises and swellings. But he didn’t know where he was.
“And still now, he keeps asking where he is. My first prediction is that I fear that he can’t go on.”
Radioshack later said in a statement they would decide on Horner’s participation in the eighth stage on Saturday.