Johnny Hoogerland 'happy to be alive' after Tour de France mayhem

IT was a day of unprecedented carnage at the Tour de France, as the leading riders crashed out and Johnny Hoogerland barely escaped with his life.

IT was a day of unprecedented carnage at the Tour de France, as the leading riders crashed out and Johnny Hoogerland barely escaped with his life.

Australian Cadel Evans, a former world champion, who slipped to third in the race, described the ninth stage as the most terrifying experience in the sport he has competed in at the top level for more than a decade.

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler emerged from the carnage in then 208km stage from Issoire to Saint-Flour as the new wearer of the yellow jersey.

The highly controversial career of Alexandre Vinokourov appears to be over after a crash which left him with a broken leg and elbow.

But Vinokourov’s accident was later over-shadowed by a horrific accident involving a car carrying a French television crew and five riders who had made what turned out to be the winning move in a daring escape.

Vacansoleil's Johnny Hoogerland and Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha were brought down by a wild overtaking manoeuvre by the official car about 40kms from the finish.

The car was attempting to overtake the race leaders did so with both its left wheels on the grass verge, before swerving back to the middle of the road to avoid a tree, clipping Flecha in the process, who immediately fell.

Flecha in turn clipped Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), who somehow managed to stay upright, while Hoogerland was thrown spectacularly through the air and landed on a barbed wire fence.

Flecha was first to remount and continued racing, his jersey shredded as if it had been put through a cheese grinder.

Hoogerland got back on his bike several minutes later with blood streaming from cuts to his legs.

The Dutchamn's wounds were dressed on the run by a doctor on the back of a motorcycle and he limped on towards the finish.

“We can be happy we're alive. It was horrible,” Hoogerland, the new wearer of the King of the Mountains jersey wearer, said at the end of the stage into Saint-Flour.

“I don't know where the car came from, before I knew it, Flecha was on the ground and there was nothing I could do.

“I hit the fence and I looked at my legs and thought: “is this what cycling is about? I have the polka-dot jersey, but I'm going to spend the rest day in a lot of pain.”

Race officials later kicked the driver of the car off the race.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said the car had failed to heed directives on the race's official radio channel.

“I announced on Radio Tour, which is the channel everyone should be listening to, that all cars should pull to the side and give priority to the team cars,” said Prudhomme.

The incident involving Flecha, Hoogerland and Voeckler came just four days after a motorbike rider was thrown off the race for dragging Saxo Bank-Sungard's Nicki Sorensen's bike out from under him.

Elsewhere, Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma Lotto) and Dave Zabriskie were among nine riders to quit the Tour due to injuries as a result of crashes.

Vinokourouv, who had previously announced he was to retire at the end of the year, suffered a broken leg and elbow after crashing through a safety barrier and ending in a clump of trees.

He was later air-lifted to a trauma hospital in Paris where he underwent surgey.

Van den Broeck, the team captain of the Omega Pharma Lotto teram and team-mate Frederick Willems both broke collarbones.

The American Zabriskie broke a wrist.

An earlier crash ended the hopes of Euskaltel-Euskadi's Amets Txurruka and Vacansoleil-DCM's Wout Poels.

Seeing the stricken Vinokourouv being helped into an ambulance terrorised Evans, who started the day just one second off the race lead.

“I came around a blind corner and they were all lying there and saw a lot of riders on the road,” he said.

“Honestly, it really, really frightened me, especially after what happened to Wouter Weylandt at the Giro.”

Weylandt was tragically killed in a race fall on stage three at the Giro in May.

The yellow jersey that had been on the shoulders of Norwegian world champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) since stage two, is now on the back of Voeckler when racing resumes tomorrow, a 158km stage from Aurillac to Camaux, the last day in the Massif Central before heading towards the high mountains of the Pyrenees.

Evans, second before the stage, drops to third overall, 2mins 26 secs behind Vockler.

The green jersey stays firmly on the shoulders of Belgium's Philippe Gilbert.
Pre-race favourite Alberto Contador drops out of the top 10 having lost more than four minutes,

He too crashed twice yesterday, but continued racing.

The Tour de France ends in Paris on July 24.