Five times winner Lance Armstrong was involved in a massive crash after 13 kilometres of the 196-kilometre sixth stage of the Tour de France between Bonneval and Angers today.
The American, who is trying for an unprecedented sixth Tour victory, was one of 30 riders involved in the pile-up, which took place at the front of the bunch. He was not injured.
"It's nothing serious. He actually fell on the tarmac. There is not much you can do when a crash takes place just in front of you," his US Postal team chief, Johan Bruyneel, said.
Armstrong is lying in sixth place overall, nine minutes and 35 seconds behind Frenchman Thomas Voeckler.
Italian sprint aces Mario Cipolini and Alessandro Petacchi have quit the race.
Former world champion Cipollini, winner of 12 Tour stages in the past, has a thigh injury.
Petacchi, with a record nine stage wins in the last Giro d'Italia and four stage victories last year on the Tour, had been expected to dominate the sprints, but he injured a shoulder in a crash yesterday.