Part of the extraordinary run that Lance Armstrong had in his seven years winning the Tour de France was his ability in avoiding crashes. On the rare occasion that he was involved in a tumble, he was lucky enough to emerge ready to race another day.

Well, luck finally caught up with him. VeloNews is reporting that Armstrong crashed in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León on Monday, breaking his collarbone. He withdrew from the race and was taken to the hospital. Armstrong cast some doubt at to whether he’ll compete at the Giro d’Italia in May with Velonews quoting him as saying his participation ”will be very complicated”.

UPDATE: Armstrong is back in Austin with plans to have surgey at the Austin Sports Medicine clinic to stabilize the fracture which is expected to speed recovery. Velonews is quoting his on his Giro d’Italia plans as “Obviously the Giro is on people’s minds and that’s about five weeks away. In my opinion I think the Giro is still very doable.” Astana team manager, Johan Bruyneel, is more cautious about the Giro but indicated that the Tour de France should still be a go saying “A broken collarbone in the month of March does not at all compromise the start of the Tour de France or your performance in the Tour de France, that’s not a problem.”

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