Reporting from Morzine, France — Lance Armstrong will not win an eighth Tour de France.
Armstrong knew that as soon as his wheel hit the curb Sunday in a roundabout, as quickly as he felt himself rolling on the ground, when he saw his tire fly off, exactly when he noticed his saddle was no longer attached to his bike.
The 38-year-old seven-time champion rode the last 32 miles of the 117.5-mile Stage 8 with a hole torn in the back of his shirt, with his RadioShack number, 21, flapping in the wind, with a bandage on his elbow and his left hip aching.
"No tears for me," the bruised and battered and proud Armstrong said. "There's been a lot of years where it's been very different."
When the stage was over, after Armstrong had crashed once and nearly tumbled two more times, he had lost more than 12 minutes to the favorites.
He finished 61st in the climbing stage, 11:45 behind the winner, Andy Schleck, a fresh-legged 25-year-old from Luxembourg.
Schleck, riding for Saxo Bank, put his stamp on this mountaintop finish jumping on his pedals and raising his arms triumphantly across the finish above the town of Morzine on a hilltop called Avoriaz.
Schleck finished in 4 hours 54.11 minutes. He is in second place overall, behind new leader Cadel Evans, an Australian riding for BMC Racing who has an overall time of 37 hours 57.09 minutes. Schleck is 20 seconds behind Evans, a two-time Tour runner-up, with defending champion Alberto Contador, the Spaniard from Astana, who is third overall, 1:01 back.
Armstrong is 39th, 13:26 behind Evans, and even when offered a lifeline from a questioner who wondered whether perhaps Armstrong had a miracle left with one more Alps stage and three tough days in the Pyrenees still ahead before the race ends July 25 in Paris, Armstrong said, "No way.
"I can stay in the race and try to win stages," he said. "I can try to help my team, but I'm not a contender. There wasn't much I could do" after the crash.
Armstrong seemed unemotional as he crossed the finish line, bedraggled, with his tongue hanging out.
"I had a couple of hours to think about it during the end of the stage," he said. "I had time to appreciate the surroundings, appreciate the fans and know it's not going to be my year this time."
It was the crash, 82 miles into the stage and just as the peloton was picking up the pace for the penultimate climb up Col de la Ramaz, where Armstrong said he started his downward spiral.
