Australian Michael Rogers was among the big name riders who crashed on the rain-hit sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday.

Rogers, riding for the Columbia team, appeared to take down Cervelo sprinter Heinrich Haussler and American David Zabriskie of Garmin as the peloton negotiated a roundabout.

The Australian, who finished ninth overall in 2006 but had to quit after a serious crash on the eighth stage in 2007, was later taken to hospital for X-rays complaining of a sore elbow.

A team spokesman said Rogers had broken no bones and was scheduled to start Friday’s seventh stage, the first day of three consecutive days in the Pyrenees mountains.

But Rogers’ disastrous stage saw him plummet from 16th to 159th overall, more than 14 minutes off the pace.

Thor Hushovd of Norway led a mass sprint finish to win the sixth stage along the rain-slickened roads south of the French border in Spain.

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kept the yellow jersey, with just a split-second lead over Lance Armstrong after the 181.5km course from Gerona to Barcelona.

Hushovd, of the Cervelo team, collected his seventh Tour stage win by edging out two Spaniards – three-time world champion Oscar Freire in second, and Jose Joaquin Rojas in third – in the final sprint.

They clocked four hours, 21 minutes, 33 seconds for the stage, the same time as 40 other riders including seven-time Tour champion Armstrong, Cancellara and Australia’s Cadel Evans – who was ninth – in the main pack of favourites.

Evans remains 2min 59sec behind Cancellara but has improved to 26th in the overall standings.

Breakaway riders including Britain’s David Millar repeatedly attacked during Thursday’s stage, only to be reeled in by the finish. He was caught with little more than one kilometre left to go.

Defending yellow jersey champion Carlos Sastre of Spain was the first rider to crash, the Cervelo rider coming down after just 10 minutes after the start.

He was eventually brought back into the race, apparently unhurt.

Later in the race Belgian’s Tom Boonen, of Quick Step, got up limping and in apparent pain after he crashed with another rider as they chased down Millar’s breakaway.

Boonen, who was only given an 11th hour reprieve to start the race from the Court of Arbitration for Sport – having not been invited by organisers following a second positive test for cocaine – is set to start on Friday.

In all 21 injured riders appeared on the official medical report after the stage, most with scrapes and bumps which should allow them to start Friday’s 224km monster stage in the Pyrenees from Barcelona to Arcalis, Andorra.

© AFP 2012

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