Lance Armstrong in lead group, gets helicopter moved

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VICTOR HARBOR, Australia -- The wind is blowing sideways, we passed signs advertising the cow races, and Lance Armstrong rode in a breakaway group for the last hour of the Tour Down Under. So powerful is Armstrong’s pull that, bothered by the draft of a helicopter tracking the race, he radioed to his Astana team manager Sean Yates who radioed tour officials who radioed the helicopter. The helicopter moved.

Stage 1 winner and defending Tour Down Under champion Andre Greipel of Team Columbia, was caught up in an early crash and is in a local hospital with a dislocated shoulder. He is out of the race.

The crowd is growing at this Southern Ocean beach town. On the drive across the peninsula I saw my first non-captive kangaroo. It looked like a mother and its baby hopping along in a field next to the car. Our driver, J.P. from the Canberra Times, says it is a common annoyance, hitting kangaroos, for Aussie drivers, kind of like the problem of cars and deers not always getting along in the U.S.

-- Diane Pucin