Updated: Alberto Contador out of Tour de France - after riding 18km with broken leg

Frame looks fine if you zoom on this image.
http://images.smh.com.au/2014/07/15/5595588/1405349443814.jpg-620x349.jpg

Had a moment of utter idiocy there and forgot about the cars/spare bikes scenario! Duuhhh
Either way, bike definetly looks clean considering conditions...

Ah, if only Holmes and Watson were still around!

Spare bikes don't have numbers on, do they?

Don't need Holmes, a frame doesn't break in that way from any forces normally associated with riding or crashing, even if it were a shitty Chinese copy it would have failed further up the top tube. It's quite possible to break one of these in a crash but the frame in the pic was most likely run over.

" Alberto Contador has abandoned the Tour de France this afternoon - after riding 18 kilometres with what turns out to be a broken fibia in a desperate attempt to remain in the race. "

Where in the body is this fibia? Is it near the fibula or closer to the tibia?

@nick t

Corporate shill?

Its not a conspiracy and I don't work for Specialized and never have

concept stores are not owned by specialized .

I actually work in a Giant brand store if that helps clarify your concerns

Specialized posted this a little while ago. We've made contact with them and they're getting back to us soon, once they've got to the bottom of what actually happened

"We are concerned about the well-being of Alberto and will be keeping you up to date on information from the incident here. This is DS Bjarne Riis description of the crash, "“Alberto crashed on a fast and straight part of the descent. He was reaching for his pocket and the bike was swept away under him probably because of a bump or hole in the road. Alberto was in the shape of his life and the entire team had our eyes fixed on the podium in Paris and the work we would have to do to get there”. Reports from Tinkoff-Saxo are saying the team car drove over the frame and Alberto was given a new bike but, after riding 18km further with a broken leg he had to abandon. Please check back here for the most up to date information. "

http://www.iamspecialized.com/news/get-well-soon-alberto/

Can't believe I'm the first person to point out there's no such bone as the fibia.

@nick t

Written attempts at sarcasm never translate well?

Unfortunately intonation gets lost in the written word...

Can't believe that ITV4's prize this week is a Specialized bike!

Just to add more fuel to different fires, why did Riis look so suspicious when removing the gilet from Contador's jersey pocket? He seemed to pull it out dead quickly, then almost hid it behind his back.

Its a shame to loose the 'Bad Guy' of the tour. No drama on the climbs or Contador taking time back on the TT.

ITV4 confirmed there were two crashes, which explains why he was riding Roche's bike and explains why he was riding fast to catch up before the second BIG wipeout. As for the broken frame. The second big crash we can see the bike is pretty fine even after he slide for 100m, there is no need to doubt the 'car ran over it' story (except for a bit of internet forum fun.)

Is a conspiracy. I see triangles.

On the subject of bike failures did anyone notice Izaguirre's forks snap soon after Froome's crash on stage 4?

You guys are just mean.

Contador is a beast. Riding 18k with a broken leg is amazing. Unless of course...wait...you don't suppose he was riding Cancellara's old motorized Cervelo do you?

And in other sporting news, a soccer player collapsed in agony when his jersey was touched by an opposing player.

No conspiracy for me. Bike run over by car. You'd get a very definite shearing pattern, but that looks twisted, so compressed and broken.

Nico Roche's blog in todays Irish Indo:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/we-were-so-confiden...

The velonews link above is now saying:

'UPDATE: However, a fourth version of events has since come to the fore, and it’s the most plausible yet. According to Specialized’s Giampaolo Mondini, one of Contador’s frames was broken while it was still on the roof. Following Contador’s crash, the team car had to rush to his aid and clipped the Belkin car as it passed, destroying the bike.

“What happened next is that the team car tried to get recover position and get up to him, passing all the other team cars in doing so. The road was really narrow and the second bike on the roof ended up touching those on the Belkin team car. It was going pretty fast and the frame broke on top of the roof due to the impact,” Mondini told CyclingTips.

“When the car arrived to Contador, Roche had left his bike to the side [for Contador to use if necessary]. The people inside didn’t initially realize that the bike on the roof had been broken as things were so stressful. Everybody was a little bit confused. Contador got a third bike and got going, but unfortunately couldn’t continue in the race.”

The broken bike had Contador’s number on it, suggesting it was his primary bike. But it was also quite clean, suggesting it had been on the roof, rather than ridden. Most teams don’t put numbers on riders’ second bikes, but Munoz has done so in the past. It is plausible that the broken bike had indeed been on the roof of the team car, rather than under Contador. CyclingTips was able to corroborate the crash story with the driver of the Belkin car. The fourth version of the story, it seems, is finally the correct one.

The timeline from the crash onwards:

Contador hit the ground while trying to eat near the bottom of the descent.

Roche stopped, left Contador his McLaren Tarmac.

Contador got onto his third bike after the crash, an S-Works Tarmac with a normal Tinkoff paint job, and without a race number. His first bike had been crashed, and his second obliterated by an impact with another car. A brief shot on television showed his mechanic picking up his crashed bike, still in one piece.

Contador did not swap bikes onto Roche’s McLaren frame, as initially speculated. Roche finished the stage on his second bike, rather than his McLaren. The story of Roche’s bike getting run over seems to have been born of the confusion surrounding the incident.'

Which sounds the most likely version yet, and explains why the bike looks clean.

If only Tinkoff-Saxo had taken Wiggins they'd have had a plan b!

Hope Contador bounces back for the Vuelta, but everyone seems to think that he's going to be out until the end of the season. What a rider to ride on with a broken leg as well, it looked like he was really struggling the second he got back on though.

Not a massive fan of Contador, but I don't like to see a rider have to abandon, especially one who would have made Nibali work a bit harder.

Nobody so far seems to have commented on the shifty looking character on the "grassy knoll" opposite. No coincidence surely?

This is starting view like a Hammer Horror as they get bumped off one by one.

As we speak, there's probably the mother of all St Christopher medallions on its way to Nibs from the Vatican!

Can't say I've ever noticed riders numbers on spare bikes but it makes perfect sense for a quick changeover.