What a difference a day makes.

Less than 24 hours after celebrating Linus Gerdemann’s Tour de France stage win and capture of the yellow jersey, T-Mobile found itself down three riders, including team captain Michael Rogers, who crashed and dislocated his shoulder while riding as the virtual yellow jersey on a stage-8 descent. Mark Cavendish’s abandonment had been planned for today to prevent exhausting the young sprinter in his first Tour. The likely abandonment of Patrik Sinkewitz, however, was anything but foreseen.

After the Tour’s first summit finish atop the Cat. 1 climb in the resort town of Tignes, Sinkewitz was one of many riders who chose to descend directly back down to their nearby hotels after the finish instead of waiting for a ride in the team busses, which had to wait for the entire peloton to arrive before beginning the slow, single-file procession back down the mountain. On the high-speed descent, Sinkewitz collided with a spectator, knocking the man unconscious, while suffering facial injuries himself, reportedly including a broken nose and broken teeth.

The unconscious spectator was airlifted to a hospital in Grenoble. (According to hospital officials, the still-unnamed spectator emerged from a coma on Monday morning -Editor)

Gerdemann rode well and remains in second on GC

Photo: Graham Watson

Sinkewitz was treated onsite by medical personnel before being transported to a hospital in Chambéry for an additional examination. Sinkewitz is not expected to start Tuesday after Monday’s rest day.

Wearing yellow in his first Tour, Gerdemann rode well on the day’s three Cat. 1 climbs to finish 20th, just behind Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov and Andréas Klöden. But Michael Rasmussen rode better, finishing well ahead of all the favorites — second-placed Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval-Prodir) was 2:47 back — and 5:05 in front of Gerdemann to take the stage and the yellow.

“We were on the highs and lows of the sport in about a 12-hour period,” said T-Mobile general manager Bob Stapleton. “Linus rode great yesterday; we had the yellow jersey. We liked our situation today; we had Michael up the road in a pretty good break with people we thought he could ride with and stay with until the finish. And we had Linus in yellow in the group with good support from the team. That was tactically looking very good. But once Michael hit the deck that changed everything.”

Back at the team hotel, Rogers spoke with Agence France Presse.

“It’s a real shame because I could see the yellow jersey,” he told AFP. “One moment I was in the lead, the next I was laying on the ground with my back wheel where my front wheel should have been. But honestly, I can’t complain because that’s cycling.”

Gerdemann said that he was not disappointed with his ride, staying with many of the favorites until the final two or three kilometers.

“It was a hard day today,” he said. “One day in the yellow jersey was very special, it was a pleasure. Without Rasmussen I would have defended the jersey. I was for sure tired this morning. It was long day yesterday, the whole day in the front. It’s not so easy to be good on the next day.”

Gerdemann now sits in second overall at 43 seconds behind the Danish climber. Although he relinquished the yellow, he will start stage 9 in the white jersey of the best young rider.

“We had bad luck today with Michael [Rogers],” Gerdemann said. “I have to say thanks to Kim Kirchen who was working for me. All of T-Mobile was behind me. It’s bad for Michael, he was our leader. But that’s bicycle racing.”

After the rest day, T-Mobile will tackle stage 9 in the Alps with 6 riders: Gerdemann, Kirchen (who is in 19th, 5:20 back), Axel Merckx (67th), Bernard Eisel (126th), Bert Grabsch (137th) and Marcus Burghardt (147th). Stapleton said the team will now look to defend the white jersey and go for stage wins.

“Losing Michael Rogers is a heartbreaker. We liked the way we were going,” Stapleton said. “But I don’t think we have to pass the torch to another rider here. We have to see how everyone is doing, how the race develops. We will be content if we can be competitive in the race and go after stage wins. We have already had a good Tour by grabbing the yellow jersey. Linus fighting through and holding on to the white jersey is a big success. So there’s some silver lining in those clouds today.”