Tour de France news shorts

The virtual GC, 18 abandons, Goss's text message nightmare and Tour tweets

Virtual GC on the Tour de France first rest dayA look at how all the big-name favourites are fairing after the first nine days of racing.
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 38:35:11
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 02:26
4 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 02:29
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 02:37
6 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 02:38
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 02:43
11 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 03:36
12 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 03:37
13 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 03:45
15 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 04:01
16 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 04:07
19 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 04:53
20 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 05:01
31 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJ 05:43
36 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 07:16
55 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad 15:16
60 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 18:09
76 Richie Porte (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard 25:21
115 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 40:31
126 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quickstep Cycling Team 44:16
Where and why 18 riders abandoned the Tour de France
Stage 9:
DNF Wout Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team - illness
DNF Pavel Brutt (Rus) Katusha Team
DNF Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Pro Team Astana - crash, broken head of the femur
DNF David Zabriskie (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo - crash, broken wrist
DNF Frederik Willems (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto - crash, broken collarbone
DNF Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto - crash, collapsed lung, three broken ribs and broken shoulder blade
DNF Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - crash, broken collarbone
DNS Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team - crash on stage 5, arm and hip injuries
Stage 8:
DNF Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar Team - crash on stage 1, broken radius bone (elbow)
DNS Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack - crash on stage 7, head trauma, broken nose
Stage 7:
DNF Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling - crash, broken collarbone
DNF Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team - crash on stage 5, injured shoulder
DNF Rémi Pauriol (Fra) FDJ - crash, broken collarbone
Stage 6:
HD Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Movistar Team
DNS Iván Velasco Murillo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - crash, broken collarbone
Stage 5:
DNF Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack - crash, broken collarbone
DNS Christophe Kern (Fra) Team Europcar - knee tendonitis
Stage 4:
DNF Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto - crash on stage 1, shoulder injury
Carnage proving costly for Rabobank
A hectic first week of the Tour is starting to add up for Rabobank, with team mechanic Vinni Hendriks explaining that he will need to order more spare parts in order to make it to Paris.
"The bikes of Gesink, Barredo, Garate and Ten Dam are a total loss," Hendriks told Het Nieuwsblad with each bike costing around 8000 Euros. "It is my eighth Tour, and I’ve never experienced this kind of workload. We have three mechanics, and every day were are working late at night on the bikes to get ready for the next day. "
Goss keeps in touch with his friends
Matt Goss was calling it "the most expensive sleep ever" when his phone went haywire in the middle of the night, re-sending entire text message conversations to their recipients.
"Just woke up and seen that my phone had re-sent every msg that was on in, at least once! 2000+ msg... Sorry to anyone that got bombarded with month old messages," he apologised over Twitter.
Twitter round-up:
Mark Cavendish - Doesn't matter that there were nearly 200 other riders suffering the same ordeal, I felt seriously sorry for myself a good few times today... Anyone involved with a bike race (including riders) should take written&practical tests before getting licenses. Hope all who crashed are ok.
Ben Swift - Terrible what happened to Flecha what am hearing that car driver needs a serious talking 2. Flecha is ok. shame as I think he would of won.
Ryder Hesjedal - Really bumbed to lose my roommate @dzabriskie ! sending him good vibes! Sorry for all that have suffered in crashes so far.tough bike race
Alberto Contador - Tough day with another fall!Not very spectacular,but the blow in my right knee worries me.I'll rest a lot!
Matt Goss - That was a tough day in the saddle, popped on last cat 4, 15km to go and lost 16 minutes! Bit of chaos in the bunch again today.
Frank Schleck - I have no words to describe this day. need to have a sleep than 2morrow I may have some words.
Richie Porte - I guess it's stating the obvious but today was hard and full gas. Not nice to see so much carnage. Hoping for some red wine at the table!
Cadel Evans - Another day done here. Thor climbs well for a guy of his stature hey? Guys kept me safe (great!). Bit 'sketchy' here in the wet... Sorry to repeat, but today was nuts: Terrifying seeing Willems laying on the road. BB down too-but ok. Tough day; boys great
Geraint Thomas - Quote of the day from Bob the Physio, 'it's not how much luck you get, just when you get it'
Brent Bookwalter - Insane and absurd by definition. Did we learn nothing from the giro? Crashing and mayhem playing bigger factor than sport. Very frustrated... Thank you to Micky Schar for staying w me today when I crashed, smacked my head and was not in a good way. MVP.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/