As reported Andreas Klöden and Alexander Vinokourov both crashed on the fifth stage of this years Tour de France.

Both riders started at the sixth stage and did not lose any more time, as they finished with the bunch. Both riders suffered during the stage and its unclear what effect their injuries will have in the coming mountain stages.

After todays sixth stage Vinokourov said: "It was a really hard day. My knees were hurting me a lot. The more the course went on, the more I got tired. The good news is that I could go through the finish line thanks to my team that helped me a lot. Now, I’ll see day after day. Tomorrow I’ll be at the start."

His teammate Klöden said: "As for Vino, it was a tough day with permanent pains. I’m then satisfied to have done the whole stage. I’ve been helped a lot by my team-mates, it is an essential support. Of course, I’ll be at the start tomorrow, but I’m not doing any pronostic for the coming days."

On his website, www.andreas-kloeden.com, Klöden said that he suffered a major swelling on his tailbone. Its putting pressure on a nerve. Klöden only slept for three hours because of the pain. On Friday morning he could's move very well.

Klöden was happy that the speed of the bunch wasn't very high on Friday. Klöden said: "As soon as I am pedalling with power, the muscles of my buttocks are stressed. Because of that the swelling pushes the nerve and that is causing great pain." Klöden continued by saying: "I hope that it will ease fast, and that I can ride passably tomorrow. I was looking forward to the Alps for the whole week but at the moment that sense of delight is somewhat under a cloud." 

Klöden concluded with: "We [Vinokourov and Klöden] are determined to continue the fight for as long as possible. We will see how it will develope in the coming days!"