Tezirek Jazılıñız Levi
By JoE Silva

Which in Kazakh translates roughly to “Get Well Soon Levi.” Those Tour De France observers who have been keeping up with the heavy amount of Twitter streams emulating from the race, woke up to find the Astana crew tweeting en masse about their fallen compatriot who was forced to exit the Tour following a fall during stage 12. X-rays revealed that Levi Leipheimer, cycling’s King of California, has sustained a transversal fracture of the scaphoid bone in his wrist. If the injury was a source of dismay for the team, it left the three-time winner of the Amgen Tour of California frustrated beyond words.

There was a fairly strong chance that Levi wasn’t going to be able to truly contest the top step of the podium, but he certainly was a key implement in directeur Johan Bruyneel’s toolkit. And if the off chance that either of the “co-captains” of this mildly controversial team were to be deemed not up to the task, Levi would have easily slotted in the role. The Tour has been a top priority for Levi, and following last year’s exclusion, he’s probably is quite shattered that he’s now been forced to surrender his high placing in the overall General Classification and completely lost whatever chance he had to prove himself on the road to Paris.

Throughout the remainder of the day, Leipheimer cheerfully walked his Twitter followers through his surgery and while there’s no word yet on the length of his recovery perhaps he will get his comeuppance when Bruyneel fields a squad for the Vuelta and puts Levi at the head of it. In the interim he will have to content himself with observing the Tour from his rest bed, and hope that “when” and “if” the real fireworks on the road take place, one of his teammates will prove himself to be superior.

That’s not the case for Cervélo TestTeam’s Heinrich Haussler – the young Australian-German rider who has spent the entire 2009 season proving his worth in a variety of scenarios. What ended in tears at the finish line of Milan-San Remo a few months ago, has morphed to a different font of waterworks in France. Haussler who powered through today’s miserable conditions to a solo win over the climbs to Colmar, burst into tears as he crossed the line a full four minutes plus over his former breakaway companions. At over 48 minutes outside of the yellow jersey, Haussler is no threat to all the other heavy hitters on GC, but today’s stage win is further confirmation that he is a potent force to be dealt with inside the pro peloton going forward. No matter that half a pedal stroke was possibly the difference in him losing Milan-San Remo to Mark Cavendish, Haussler is a powerhouse of the sort that will one day see him triumph in similar circumstances like Paris-Roubaix. Buoyed by the victory, Haussler will now have even more impetus to assist his higher profile teammates Thor Hushovd and Carlos Sastre to achieve their jersey ambitions. Sastre like the rest of those concerned with the big prize sat back in the sopping wet peloton today with the rest of the GC waiting…and waiting…and waiting.