Oscar Pereiro suffered a sharp drop in the stage of the Tour

The first Alpine stage of the Tour de France 2008 had dire consequences for the Spanish cycling, for Oscar Pereiro, winner of the gala round in 2006, fell down an embankment, fracturing his humerus.

The fracture of the humerus is a lesser evil given the thump that stuck in the whole Galician Caisse Epargne. It is a sad end for Pereiro after showing one of the strongest, if not the oldest, Eusebio Unzúe team. Despite not being the first team in general, his frustration at seeing his teammate Valverde did not respond in the last Pyrenean stage made it clear he had no strength for more.

The day's stage ended with a first class port and colophon. They arrived with more than ten minutes' advantage over the peloton, Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Jose Luis Arrieta (AG2R), Simon Gerrans and Danny Pate. Among them was to elucidate the stage winner, as the squad had a lot of downside and nothing was going in that fight. In a fit of Egoi Martinez, Jose Luis Arrieta left hook to the fate of the port, but finally Gerrans, who entered the break when it was formed, took the stage win.

As for big men from the general, Andy Schleck, Frank's brother, the CSC, gave a grueling pace from the start that few could follow. Very soon (in the absence of much) remained the most important men, which also contained a large Alejandro Valverde who refused to answer all his critics who had branded a bad rider after losing a bill into Hautacam. With it, the best: Cadel Evans, dressed in yellow, Frank Schleck, Carlos Sastre, Samuel Sanchez, Christian Vandevelde, Bernhard Kohl and a few others.

The climb to the port was a continuous attack on Australian Evans, that no equipment had to repay depending on which corridor forces proved the attack. He was about to run when Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov tested their strength, but the lack of continuity helped. Andy Schleck turned to the group and pulled a lot of strength again until Denis Menchov took off like a bull ready to bust overall. Too bad that when he went forward only to fall to around a curve. The sportsmanship of the noble sport of cycling, punctuated by cases of doping became clear when the men waited for the Russian major.

Later, Carlos Sastre, Bernhard Kohl, Denis Mench and a little further back, Alejandro Valverde escaped the leader who managed to escape to not let Frank Schleck, so lacking in strength. This led to the finish, with Kohl having many opportunities to achieve the gold jersey but eventually got Frank Schleck, leaving Cadel Evans a few seconds ago.

Carlos Sastre is sixth overall, the best Spanish, but has bitten many seconds to Cadel Evans. The thing between these first six are very close, less than a minute: Frank Schleck, Bernhard Kohl, Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov, Christian Vandevelde and Carlos Sastre.

Morning, day off.

Image: Marca.com