Shown here riding easy during Stage 10, Levi Leipheimer has withdrawn from the 2009 Tour de France after breaking his wrist at the end of yesterday’s Stage 12.
He’s scheduled to have surgery in France today to have a screw placed in his Scaphoid to hold/repair a tranverse fracture.
Leipheimer, who has been sitting comfortably in 4th place overall for most of this year’s tour, said he felt OK last night but was in real pain this morning.  X-rays confirmed he had a broken wrist.
Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel said Levi’s withdrawal may force them to rethink their team’s tactics for the rest of the Tour.
“It’s definitely not a good thing,” Bruyneel acknowledged. “After the crash, I thought there might be something.  You hope there won’t be and in the first instance we didn’t think there was something broken.
“But he had a fairly bad night and we took him to the hospital and saw the fracture.
“Obviously he’s out and that changes a lot for us,” Bruyneel continued. “We’ve lost an importan option and this will motivate other teams to attack us.”
