Even for a Tour de France thus far marred by such carnage, yesterday (Sunday, July 10) witnessed something of a new low in terms of crashes. With around 36km left of Stage 9 (208km Issoire to Saint-Flour) an overtaking French TV car hit Team Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha and also spectacularly cart-wheeled Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling) into a barbed wire fence. Although both riders, bloody and bruised, managed to retake the saddle the mayhem left them a good 16minutes off pace. Organisers expelled the car from the event with Tour Director Christian Prudhomme commenting, “They caused the crash of both riders. This behaviour is intolerable.” Hoogerland, clearly with the memory of Wouter Weylandt’s death in May’s Giro d’Italia still fresh in the mind, said at the finish that he was happy just to be alive, but in typically Dutch fashion succinctly described the event thus: “It was shit.”