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Saying Farewell
After cresting the Col du Platzerwasel with his team, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) dropped back to have another conversation with his Team Manager, Bjarne Riis, after a few hand gestures he slid back into the pace line, seemingly about to start a death defying descent through the rain and thick mist in search of the peloton. Instead the next thing we saw was Contador reaching over to pat Mick Rogers, thanking him for all of the hard work, receive a squeeze of the shoulders in salute followed by the two time winner of the Tour de France, pulling off to the side of the road. He surrendered his bike to the mechanic and climbed into the back seat of one of the team cars. After some shuffling of seating arrangements, the two Tinkoff Saxo cars got back to their job at hand, supporting the rest of the neon yellow clad men still in the Tour. After the race, it was learned that Contador had fractured his tibia. Let that sink in a minute, he had just climbed a mountain in the cold rain with a broken leg! These are truly hard men that race on these skinny tires in their skin tight outfits.