Carnage

It wasn't as horrific a crash as Stage 1 of the 2003 Tour, but I imagine Levi Leipheimer must have been suffering a little from PTSD, after seeing a couple of his teammates go down in the finale of Stage 2 today.

If you'll recall, Leipheimer, then a member of Rabobank, lost any dream of being on the Tour podium, and his entire season, when he completed his endo by landing on his backside fracturing his tail bone. Also in that 2003 pileup was Tyler Hamilton, who at that time elevated himself to instant cult hero status by gutting out a fractured collarbone, winning a stage, and eventually placing just off the podium in Paris.

Today's Stage 2 crash saw a fair number of big names go down, and left Discovery Channel with one less rider as big Thomas Vaitkus (Photo: Graham Watson) fractured his thumb and is unable to continue after having surgery.

If I'm not mistaken, since Lance Armstrong's retirement, his former team hasn't finish a Tour with a full complement of riders; an accomplishment in which US Postal/Discovery once took pride.

There was also carnage of a different kind as the up hill finale and QuickStep - Innergetic made easy work of the field sprint. Gert Steegmans, who Versus' commentator, Robbie Ventura, analogized to former Dallas Cowboy fullback, "Moose" Johnson for leading Emmit Smith's way, claimed the victory while leading out the sprint for Tom Boonen.

It's kind of nice to see the fullback get a carry down by the goal line once in a while.

Stage 2 Results
1 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 3.48.22 (44.2 km/h)
2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic
3 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas
4 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld
5 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
6 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor - Lotto
7 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
8 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Gerolsteiner
9 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
10 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux