With Friday's mass crash fest, Garmin was handed the worst news.
                                                  Photo: Bettini        

A reduced peloton of 182 riders started the seventh stage of the Tour de France Saturday a day after a mass pile-up led to 12 abandons and many riders nursing injury and severe road rash.

   American Tom Danielson (Garmin), Davide Vigano (Lampre) and Spaniard Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel) quit the race prior to the stage finish in Metz where Slovakian Peter Sagan took his third win of the race.

   Spaniard Oscar Freire (Katusha), Belgian Maarten Wynants (Rabobank) and Dutchman Wouter Poels of Vacansoleil were confirmed as having quit the race after the stage.

   On Saturday morning more casualties were added to the list with Spaniards Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel), Imanol Erviti and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (both Movistar), Canada's Ryder Hesjedal and South African Robert Hunter (both Garmin) and Frenchman Hubert Dupont (AG2R-La Mondiale) all pulling out.

   It brings the number of retirements from the race to 16 since the start in Liege a week ago. Dutchman Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Team Sky) had all quit prior to Friday's stage because of injuries suffered in crashes.

   Germany Marcel Kittel of Argos-Shimano withdrew after 40km of racing Thursday having suffered from a stomach virus since Monday. Swiss Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack started the stage in the race leader's yellow jersey with a 7sec lead on Britain's Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and a 17s lead on Australia's defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC).

WHAT ABOUT GARMIN?
Garmin team leader Ryder Hesjedal has pulled out of the Tour de France after suffering several injuries in the crash-marred sixth stage, team chief Jonathan Vaughters said Saturday.

   "Ryder is not going to start. Sad but he will be back," Vaughters said on his Twitter account.

   Canada's recent Giro d'Italia champion, considered a yellow jersey outsider, was one of several Garmin men to suffer in the 60 km/h pile-up 26 kilometres from the finish line of Friday's 205 km stage from Epernay to Metz.

   Hesjedal, who suffered a hematoma "right on his hip joint" according to Vaughters, was in a "sombre, quiet mood" Saturday as both he and teammate Tom Danielson prepared to travel to the airport in Paris.

   "We figured his hematoma would go down overnight, but it didn't," Vaughters said prior to the seventh stage to the race's first hilltop finish at La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges.

   "The problem is to the degree that he can't actually bend his leg. He's in a pretty quiet sombre mood this mornig, there wasn't a whole lot of debate (about his participation)."

   Danielson was also forced out of the race, along with five riders from other teams, and on Saturday morning Garmin were among many teams counting their maimed and injured. Danielson suffered a reoccurrence of the separated shoulder he sustained in a crash on stage three as well as a sprained neck, chest contusion and multiple extensive deep abrasions, according to a Garmin team statement.

   Belgian Johan Vansummeren arrived at the stage finish with barely a stitch of his cycling gear holding together and with patches of road rash on his back and buttocks. He was transported to a local hospital immediately where exams revealed a sprain to his right shoulder and upper back along with multiple abrasions, according to Garmin.

   Vaughters, who as a rider suffered injury mishap on the Tour, said they would now be "in survival mode" until the first rest day on Tuesday before coming up with a new strategy.

   "You have to come up with new objectives. You can't just ride along in the peloton," added the American, who revealed that Dan Martin is the only rider from the team who hasn't been part of any sort of crash. Once we get past the rest day and have been able to recover a little bit then we'll hope to start playing an open and aggressive game."

THE FINAL TALLY
   Following is a list of the retirements and reasons for retirement:
   
   AG2R
   Hubert Dupont (FRA) - sprained ankle, vertebrae and radius
   
   Euskaltel
   Mikel Astarloza (ESP) - elbow
   Amets Txurruka (ESP) - right collarbone fracture
   
   Garmin
   Tom Danielson (USA) - shoulder
   Robert Hunter (RSA) - vertebrae
   Ryder Hesjedal (CAN) - hematoma hip, left knee
   
   Katusha
   Oscar Freire (ESP) - broken rib
   
   Lampre
   Davide Vigano (ITA) - broken collarbone
   
   Movistar
   Imanol Erviti (ESP) - right leg
   Jose Ivan Gutierrez (ESP) - right knee
   
   Rabobank
   Maarten Wynants (BEL) - broken ribs, perforated lung
   
   Vacansoleil
   Wouter Poels (NED) - broken ribs, injured spleen
   
   Retirements prior to Friday:
   Argos-Shimano
   Marcel Kittel (GER) - stomach virus
   
   Movistar
   Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP) - shoulder
   
   Rabobank
   Maarten Tjallingii (NED) - hip fracture
   
   Sky
   Kanstantsin Sivtsov (BLR) - tibia fracture