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TOUR: France's Pinot wins stage 8, Olympic champ out of Tour de France
PORRENTRUY, Switzerland — Thibaut Pinot of France won the eighth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, and Bradley Wiggins retained the yellow jersey.
But defending Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez withdrew from the race Sunday after a crash in which he broke his right hand and injured his left shoulder. He could miss the London Games.
The crash happened 35 miles into the stage that took the riders into the Swiss mountains.
See photos from Stage 8 of the Tour de France.
Sanchez fell on his side before two other riders landed on him. He sat on the ground in tears, clutching his left shoulder and arm as medical teams tended to him. He could not get back on a bike and was put on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital in Montbeliard.
"We suspect a dislocated or a broken shoulder," Tour doctor Florence Pommerie. "He also lost consciousness for a couple of seconds, probably because of the pain."
Alejandro Valverde of Spain, one of the two riders who fell on Sanchez, cut his shin in the crash, Pommerie said.\
Crashes have marred the first week of the Tour and Sanchez became the 20th rider to drop out of the three-week race.
The 98-mile ride on Sunday from Belfort to the Swiss town of Porrentruy featured seven climbs — two of them super-steep.
Sanchez won a Tour stage last year on his way to winning the best climber's polka-dot jersey. He was set to defend his Olympic title in the road race July 28. It's not clear if Sanchez will recover from his injuries in time to compete.
Sanchez had started the day in 12th position, 2 minutes and 2 seconds behind Tour leader Bradley Wiggins. He said this week that winning the Olympic road race at the Beijing Games was the pinnacle of his career, and said he is eager to defend it.
2012 Tour de France:
