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STAGE 4: SOLER OUT, VALVERDE DOWN AT TOUR DE FRANCE
Road Bike Action & AFP
July 9, 2008
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2007 Tour De France "King of the Mountains" Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) of Colombia abandoned Stage 5 of the Tour De France in Cholet early on to end his 2008 Tour.
Soler, who rides for the UK-registered Barloworld team, has a suspected fracture of the scaphoid bone in his left wrist from a crash on the chaotic 197.5km first stage of the Tour Saturday. It is the same wrist that Soler injured in the Giro d'Italia in May.
The courageous Colombian finished the next but had lost almost twenty minutes on the race lead and was in 176th place nearly 18 minutes behind tour leader Stefan Schumacher on Wednesday when he decided to abandon early in Stage 5.
Later on Stage 5, Spain's Tour de France favorite Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) crashed around the 90km mark because of a due to a back wheel flat. He suffered knee and forearm injuries but got back on his
bike to continue the Tour.
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