Hoogerland and Flecha were in a breakaway with less than an hour to the finish line of the stage when Flecha was sideswiped by a French television camera car, who was trying to pass and swerved into the riders to avoid a tree. You can see the crazy footage here:
It was massive as the breakaway was successful and significant as Voeckler went on to gain four minutes in the general classification on Schleck, Contador, Evans et al. Hoogerland and Flecha crawled to the finish bloody and battered.
These cameramen are employed to shoot footage of the race, and the driver quite violently swerved in from the edge of the road and smacked one rider into the other. Both survived. No bones were broken unlike in the earlier high-speed downhill crash that lead to a number of riders withdrawing. Hoogerland was however thrown into a barbed wire fence and after finishing the race, apparently received 33 stitches.
Hoogerland is still the leader in the polka-dot climber's jersey, but as one commentator on the race remarked last night, he "continues to have a far off look in his eyes" after the incident.
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