Tour de France stage 13, 2009- at a glance

In the Tour de France 13 stage - Friday police have launched an investigation after two riders, New Zealander Julian Dean of Garmin-Slipstream and Spaniard Oscar Freire of Rabobank were hit with pellets near the 165km mark of the 200km stage in the hilly Vosges region suffered light injuries when hit by shots fired from an airgun.

According to Bike World News Levi Leipheimer who was expected to race today woke up on Friday morning in considerable pain. X-rays revealed that the wrist was broken, and he dropped out of the race.

Disappointed Leipheimer who is sheduled to be returned back to US for further treatment and recovery says, his wrist hurts a lot but it doesn’t compare to the pain of watching the Tour leave him behind and not be able to ride the Tour with his teammates.

Astana manager admits that Leipheimer departure will affects the team’s future tactics and surely encourage other teams.

However to compensate the gap Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador rode strongly together at the front over the Category 1 Col du Platzerwasel and looked perfectly comfortable with the uphill effort.

Milram’s lead out man Peter Wrolich dropped out before the start of today’s stage with gastrointestinal problems.

Rinaldo Nocentini took his eighth yellow jersey today, besting Marco Pantani’s Italian record of seven days in yellow during the 1998 Tour.

No doping cases yet

According to former Gerolsteiner manager Hans-Michael Holczer  it is not a good sign that after a week of the race, there have been no doping cases. He believed that there were 4 to 7 riders expected to be named as dopers.