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Home » Top Stories » Road » Amgen Tour of California

Leipheimer sidelined with fracture

Published: Feb. 28, 2009
Leipheimer suffered a broken sacrum in this stage 3 crash at AToC.
Leipheimer suffered a broken sacrum in this stage 3 crash at AToC.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

The Astana Cycling team announced Saturday that Levi Leipheimer suffered an undisplaced fracture of the sacrum in a crash during the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California.

As a result of the diagnosis, Leipheimer will not compete in next month’s edition of Paris-Nice (March 6-15) and will delay his return to cycling until March 23, when he competes in the five-day Vuelta a Castilla y León.

Leipheimer reported pain and discomfort following the February 17 crash in California, triggered when he overlapped wheels with teammate Lance Armstrong. The fracture did not, however, prevent him from continuing the nine-day California stage race in which he subsequently won the individual time trial and the overall classification.

The sacrum is the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine, wedged between both hip bones and serves as the upper and back portion of the pelvic cavity. Leipheimer was reporting pain following the crash, but it wasn't until this week that an MRI revealed the fracture.

The Sacrum is the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine.
The Sacrum is the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine.
Photo: Gray's Anatomy - Public domain image

“It was my fault,” Leipheimer said on the day of the crash. “I just looked down for one second. I wasn’t fully concentrating. And it was windy out there and it’s hard to ride in a straight line. Everyone was going from left to right, and the next thing I know I touched a wheel and went down on my ass. I can certainly feel it on my butt. It’s like when you stub your toe … maybe a little bit bigger than that.”

On Saturday, Leipheimer said that he had been "wondering why the pain wouldn't go away."

Now he knows.

Meanwhile, teammate Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuania’s national road champion, suffered a broken right radius in his elbow in a crash during Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium.

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