Team Sky left in shock as Wiggins crashes out

CHATEAUROUX, France, July 8 (Reuters) - Team Sky were left in shock as Bradley Wiggins’s Tour de France challenge ended brutally on
Friday when the Briton abandoned the race after breaking his collarbone in a multiple pile-up.
With some 40 kilometres left in the seventh stage from Le Mans Wiggins fell off his bike and appeared in obvious pain as he held his left arm before leaving the scene in an ambulance.
Wiggins’s crash came just one day after Team Sky snatched their first victory on the Tour when Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen won the sixth stage.
The British champion came to the race in great form, having won the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine, a pre Tour warm-up event last month.
“It’s obviously a devastating day for the team. He was in great shape, he put so much work into this Tour,” Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford told reporters.
“Things change very quickly and that’s what happened today.”
Wiggins, a three-times Olympic pursuit champion, came to prominence on the road in 2009 when he finished a surprising fourth overall in the Tour.
Last year he ended a disappointing 24th overall but said that he had prepared much better for this year’s race.
“It’s just a shame we don’t get to see him in the mountains because he was in the best shape of his life,” said Brailsford.
The British team, however, vowed to bounce back.
“Unfortunately Brad is not there to do the business over the next two weeks but we’ll be back next year better than ever,” Team Sky sports director Shane Sutton told reporters.
Wiggins’s team mate Geraint Thomas was not far from his leader when it all happened.
“Obviously we heard and we all sat up,” the Welshman, who along with the other Sky riders came to a standstill, said.
It was all for nothing, however, as Wiggins could not get back on his bike, with his team mates forced to chase the peloton to limit the damage.
Thomas, Boasson Hagen and the five other Team Sky riders crossed the line with a 3:06 deficit—a huge blow for the British outfit.
“It’s just pretty disappointing for the team. We’ve got to put this behind us. At the end of the day it’s sport,” Thomas said. “He’s gonna be okay, he’s gonna be back next year.”
Brailsford added: “You just keep on going don’t you? You go after different objectives and different goals. That’s the nature of our sport.”
Thomas and Boasson Hagen are now expected to battle it out to add to the Norwegian’s stage win.
The Tour has been marred by crashes this year, with three-times winner Alberto Contador also hitting the deck on Wednesday although the Spaniard escaped unscathed.