Video: The moment Alberto Contador's Tour ended; left stricken by roadside after a crash

It looks like a broken frame was the start of the problems that led Alberto Contador to abandon the Tour de France today.

 

 

The video below shows the moment pre race favourite Alberto Contador was left stricken at the side of the road on stage 10 of the Tour de France.

The Tinkoff-Saxo man crashed with around 95km of the first stage in the high mountains completed and as the rain battered the riders, with the group of big favourites around five minutes behind a breakaway.

He had a mechanical - apparently a broken frame - and swapped bikes with Nicolas Roche . It was immediately after that switch that the cameras first picked up the Spaniard by the side of the road.

However, the exact sequence of events was not clear at the time of writing.

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Contador appeared to injure his right knee and while he got back on his bike it was clear he was at the very least shook up from the spill.

He lost a couple of minutes to the group he had been in, including yellow jersey Vincenzo Nibali by the time he got going again.

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However, he stopped a second time and was held up for a prolonged period; this time after apparently having trouble with his foot or shoe. By the time he got going he was over four minutes down on the Nibali group.

And while three of his team mates waited with him to try and get him back on or limit his loses, and he pulled some time back initially; as the rain poured down he abandoned not long after restarting the second time.