Crash leaves fan in a coma

The spectator was airlifted from the ski resort to hospital in Grenoble.

The accident happened as the T-Mobile cyclist, having finished the 103-mile Alpine trek from Le Grand-Bornand, was returning on his bike back down the valley to his team hotel, which was situated in the lower-level Tignes Le Lac.

Mountain man: Rasmussen takes the lead in the Alps

Sinkewitz, whose nose was broken, was taken to Chambery hospital for further tests.

The dangers of cycling downhill fast were all too apparent on a day which was supposed to be about going up, not down, mountains.

Spain's David Arroyo, attempting to avoid a collision with another T-Mobile rider, Michael Rogers, at the head of the field, was catapulted over a crash barrier on the descent from the Cormet de Roseland and was extremely fortunate that the shrubbery below caught him.

On other bends, there is no shrubbery, just a vertiginous drop on to rocks.

Rogers himself was forced to abandon with a shoulder injury he sustained in his crash. The leader of the T-Mobile team talked through his injury with the Tour doctor but was forced to give up in tears when the pain became too intense.

Fellow Australian Stuart O'Grady was another retirement after falling on the same descent.

Instead of continuing up the valley to the finish in Tignes, the veteran was driven down it to the local hospital in Moutiers where he was found to have suffered several fractured ribs and vertebrae.

Three other riders who abandoned the race yesterday included Britain's Mark Cavendish. In common with many young riders in their first Tour, the 22-year- old sprinter was simply exhausted but will have benefited greatly from the experience.

Had he continued, Cavendish would almost certainly have been eliminated on the complicated constraints which dictate that a rider has to finish within a certain time of the stage winner.

Robbie McEwen, winner of the sprint finish into Canterbury last Sunday, suffered such a fate, finishing more than one hour, nine minutes outside the time of stage victor Michael Rasmussen.

A hard day of savage gradients and searing temperatures required a hard man.

None come harder than the Dane whose gallant victory earned him the leader's yellow jersey which may be more difficult to prise off his back than many of his rivals imagine.

Rasmussen loves the mountains. Winner of the Tour's polka dot jersey, which is awarded to the best climber over the race, for the past two years, he charged away from the field with such fearless determination that all of the pre-Tour favourites trailed in minutes behind him in the ski resort of Tignes.

With another gruelling Alpine in prospect after today's rest day and a particularly severe trek through the Pyrenees to come next weekend, Rasmussen is daring to dream that he could build up such an advantage in the mountains that his chronic weakness in the two time-trial stages might be covered up.

He said: "As the day went on today, winning Le Tour appeared to be a possibility. Today was about taking as much time out of my rivals as possible. But we still have 110kms (70 miles) of time trialling to negotiate.

"I haven't trained specifically for it and I have proven in the past that it's not my speciality.

"I'm a pure climber. If I am to hold the yellow jersey all the way to Paris, I'll have to climb faster than I have ever done in my life. But maybe this could be the year because the Pyrenees look very difficult this time."

While Rasmussen led the way, it was another difficult day for race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov, who will at least be relieved that he has a day to rest his battered body following a horrific crash on Thursday.