July 7, 2010 – The 2010 edition of the Tour de France has started with an unusual amount of carnage early on. After only 3 stages, crashes have been the biggest story of the race and few riders remain unscathed. Metres of bandages, gauze, and kinesiotape are being used daily to patch up the fallen riders. Unfortunately, several big names have already been forced to abandon due to injuries, including Frank Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank, who crashed out on Stage 3 with a broken shoulder, and Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin-Transitions, who was out after a Stage 2 tumble. Check out the photos of the carnage.

Crashes

Stage 3
– Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) out of Tour
– Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank)
– Jani Brajkovic (RadioShack)
– David Le Lay (AG2R La Mondiale) out of Tour

Stage 2
– Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
– Mickäel Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
– Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions)
– Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions) out of Tour
– Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini)
– Niki Terpstra (Team Milram) out of Tour
– Lance Armstrong (Team RadioShack)

Stage 1
– Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia)
– Oscar Freire (Rabobank)
– Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo TestTeam)
– Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)
– Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia)
– Alberto Contador (Astana)
– Adam Hansen (Team HTC – Columbia) out of Tour