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LOS ANGELES, May 20, 2010 (AFP) – Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong abandoned the Tour of California after crashing early in the fifth stage on Thursday.

“Sorry to report there was a huge crash,” RadioShack team manager Johan Bruyneel said via Twitter. “Lance had to abandon and is going to the hospital for x-rays.”

Team spokesman Philippe Maertens said Armstrong required stitches in his left elbow and under his left eye.

Armstrong, defending champion and teammate Levi Leipheimer, and Saxo Bank’s Stuart O’Grady were among those involved in the crash, which came as the road narrowed departing the town of Visalia.

A rider in the main group skidded on some gravel and fell, causing others to crash.

Armstrong had started his day denying doping accusations leveled by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive dope test.

Landis has gone public with confessions of his own doping, and alleged that Armstrong and Bruyneel were also involved in systematic doping.

“We have nothing to hide,” Armstrong said before the fifth stage began. “We have nothing to run from.”

Armstrong had gone into the fifth stage in 16th place overall, 27 seconds off the pace of American race leader David Zabriskie.

The Floyd Landis story went viral Thursday, but riders competing in the Giro d’Italia didn’t know the full extent of the blockbuster accusations until well after the final sprint.

The headlines were changing by the hour in a series of revelations and denials regarding Landis’s allegations of systematic doping throughout his career. Racers at the Giro were still catching their breath at the finish line when journalists peppered them with questions.

“I don’t even know what happened, I’ve been racing the Giro all day!” said stage winner Filippo Pozzato (Katusha). “Journalists only ask about cycling when there is a doping scandal. No one pays attention to the positive changes the sport has made. Cycling is cleaner now than the old days. We have accepted all the rules imposed from us from the outside, unlike other sports. You can see cycling has changed. The riders are more tired, the race cannot be controlled like before, young riders are coming to the forefront. Why don’t journalists write about that?”

The Landis story was making waves, but it certainly didn’t have the same impact as it is at the Tour of California.

There was a muted reaction among the Giro peloton when they woke up Thursday morning. Riders were more interested in digesting the fallout from Wednesday’s epic stage than the growing Landis scandal that was dominating headlines across the ocean.

“I read an article this morning on ESPN. I don’t know what to say. If you think about what happened in his hearings, it’s not a big surprise,” said Marco Pinotti (HTC-Columbia) before the start. “He was already suspended and he denied it until the last moment. When I got the news, I was not so surprised. He was claiming his innocence, now he changes, so it proves that USADA was right when they decided to ban him.”

Officials at BMC – many of whom worked with Landis at Phonak during his tainted Tour de France victory in 2006 – did not want to speak. Sport director John Lelangue, who directed Landis in 2006 with Phonak, refused to comment before Thursday’s start.

“We’ve just seen a small story on a Web site, so there’s nothing really I can say,” said BMC spokesman Georges Luchinger on Thursday morning. “He’s saying some strong things. First he takes an oath that says he’s saying the truth, now he’s changing his mind and saying he was lying before.”

By the end of the stage, however, more details of Landis’s allegations were published online as media around the world dug into the story. Versions of an alleged letter written by Landis to USA Cycling officials named several riders and staff. BMC owner Andy Rihs and team manager Jim Ochowicz each released strong denials.

One name mentioned in the alleged Landis letter was Michael Barry, currently racing on Team Sky at the Giro. Landis rode together with Barry at the U.S. Postal Service team.

Team Sky general manager Dave Brailsford spoke with journalists following Thursday’s stage. He defended Barry and said the Canadian veteran comes with good credentials after racing for Columbia for three seasons.

“There are allegations. I think from our point of view, we’ll speak to Michael. But like anything else in life, you have to establish fact. We have procedures, and the procedures will be based on fact – not allegations,” Brailsford said after the stage. “If allegations can be substantiated, there are procedures to handle everything from there.”

“We are an open, transparent team and we’re here to race clean. We believe you can perform clean at the elite end of this sport,” Brailsford continued. “Now I could be horribly mistakes, but from the evidence that I have, it can be done and that’s what we’re here to do.”

The 93^rd Giro is one of the most exciting and wide-open in years, and so far has not been marred by doping scandals, police raids or other controversy that’s been such a part of the recent history of the race.

Most people associated in the Giro were hoping that Landis’s admissions of doping remain part of cycling’s past.

Lance Armstrong Thursday dismissed accusations of doping leveled against him by disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis, who implicated the seven-time Tour de France winner and others in confessing his own cheating.
“It’s our word against his word,” Armstrong told a clutch of reporters in Visalia, California, shortly before the start of the fifth stage of the Tour of California. “I like our word. We like our credibility.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Landis acknowledged his own drug use and accused colleagues in emails he sent to cycling officials and sponsors.
He said Armstrong schooled him in doping techniques, and colluded with an official of the International Cycling Union (UCI) to have a positive test covered up.
Sports news site ESPN.com said Landis confirmed to them that he had sent the emails admitting the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“I want to clear my conscience,” he said. “I don’t want to be part of the problem anymore.”
Landis, who was stripped of his own 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone, claimed he and other US cyclists conducted blood transfusions, and used steroids and the synthetic blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).
In emails addressed to officials from USA Cycling, the UCI and elsewhere, Landis alleged that longtime Armstrong team manager Johan Bruyneel introduced Landis to practices including steroid patch use and blood doping.
Bruyneel led the US Postal team which later became Discovery Channel, to victory in eight of nine Tour de France races from 1999 – seven straight from
1999-2005 with Armstrong.
Landis joined US Postal in 2002, and teamed with Armstrong in three Tour de France campaigns before winning in 2006 riding for Phonak.
With Bruyneel – now manager of Armstrong’s RadioShack team – at his side, Armstrong challenged Landis’ credibility.
“Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago,” said Armstrong, who crashed early in stage five abandoned the Tour of California. “We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from.”
The UCI reacted angrily to the charge that Armstrong and Bruyneel arranged with former UCI President Hein Verbruggen to have a positive doping test by Armstrong during the 2002 Tour of Switzerland suppressed.
“Deeply shocked by the gravity of this statement, which considerably impinges on the honour of all persons who have dedicated themselves to the fight against doping, the UCI wishes to clearly state that it has never changed or concealed a positive test result,” the governing body said in a statement.
The UCI also noted that Armstrong, who won the Tour of Switzerland in 2001, didn’t even compete in the race in 2002.
“We’re a little confused, maybe just as confused as you guys,” Armstrong said of the discrepancy.
Speaking to ESPN, Landis admitted “misjudgments”, but said he felt no guilt at having taken performance-enhancing drugs.
“I don’t feel guilty at all about having doped,” Landis said. “I did what I did because that’s what we (cyclists) did and it was a choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get there.”
Among other cyclists implicated by Landis, George Hincapie said he was “really disappointed” by the accusations.
Jim Ochowicz, a former USA Cycling official also fingered by Landis, now heads Hincapie’s current BMC Racing team.
“These allegations are not true, absolutely unfounded and unproven,”
Ochowicz said.
USA Cyling and the US Anti-Doping Agency both stuck to policies of not commenting on doping allegations or cases in progress.
UCI president Pat McQuaid, speaking to the BBC, questioned Landis’ motives.
“What’s his agenda? The guy is seeking revenge. It’s sad, it’s sad for cycling. It’s obvious he does hold a grudge.
“He already made those accusations in the past. I have to question the guy’s credibility. There is no proof of what he says. We are speaking about a guy who has been condemned for doping before a court.”
Landis was banned from racing for two years after failing his drug test, making his return in January 2009.
He lost an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which threw out his case in June 2008 and ordered him to pay 100,000 dollars in judicial costs to the American anti-doping agency.
Landis’ attempts to clear his name are believed to have cost him some two million dollars (1.6 million euros), some of which he raised through contributions from his fans.
“I’d remind everybody that this is a man that’s been under oath several times and had a very different version,” said Armstrong, who has strenuously denied past doping allegations.
“This is a man that wrote a book for profit that had a completely different version. This is somebody that took, some would say, close to one million dollars from innocent people for his defense under a different premise.
“Now when it’s all run out the story changes.”