Armstrong's crash wrath

But the American finished the 196-km stage from Bonneval to Angers in the same time as the leading riders and kept his sixth place in the overall standings, 9 minutes and 35 seconds behind France's Thomas Voeckler.

The first pile-up after 13 km involved some 30 riders, including Armstrong, who came off his bike. The Texan was then held up by the second crash, which occurred one km before the finish.

"The first was a typical early race crash. A lot of the riders were nervous and it was windy," Armstrong said.

"Two guys went down in front of me. I hit the brakes but there was nothing I could do about it."

"Bikes don't stop that fast and so I went over and my tyre came off. It wasn't that bad, I cut my arm and my hip and I'm a little stiff on the hip but I'm fine."

Armstrong described the crash near the finish as stressful and questioned why the organisers had made the final part of the stage so narrow.

"They had the barriers really tight and there were 200 guys racing through there at 40 miles an hour, so I don't know what the hell they were thinking."

"You're always going to get crashes when it's like that," Armstrong said.