Hesjedal out of Tour

Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal abandoned the Tour de France ahead of stage seven today.

The Canadian had been tipped as a contender for the yellow jersey, but sustained what his Garmin-Sharp team described as “a massive haematoma on his left hip and leg” on stage six and opted out of the race ahead of the 199-kilometre route from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles.

Garmin-Sharp directeur sportif Jonathan Vaughters wrote on Twitter: “Hesjedal is not going to start. Sad, but he’ll be back.”

Hesjedal was involved in a major collision around 26km from the end of yesterday’s stage to Metz, losing more than 13 minutes as a result.

It was a crash his British team-mate David Millar, riding in his 11th Tour, described as one of the scariest of his career.

Almost all of the Garmin-Sharp team were involved in the collision, with Tom Danielson abandoning as a result of the incident after dislocating his shoulder and suffering numerous other injuries.