Levi Leipheimer not only announced he was out of the Tour de France today via Twitter, albeit through Lance Armstrong’s Twitter account, he has used Twitter to post information about his wrist surgery.
Leipheimer’s Twitter account played host today to a series of images of the cyclist’s fractured scaphoid, which knocked him out of the Tour before today’s stage 13, including a x-ray which showed the 22cm titanium screw inserted into his hand, as well as a live shot of the surgery in action (not for the squeamish)!
Leipheimer’s first message about the injury on his own Twitter account was “My wrist is broken. I can’t describe how disapointed I am” [sic] , and he later said, “They ‘blocked’ the nerves in my arm 4 surgery. Strange experience to say the least.”
Leipheimer was considered an outside chance to win the Tour, and a better chance to take a podium spot, though as he was in the team containing Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador who have already been taking a lot of oxygen fighting amongst themselves, he was always going to be little better than an outside chance.
The surgery took place in the French city of Toul, which is about 75km by road from Vittel where the previous stage of the Tour de France had finished.
