Zabel Wins Stage; Rominger Injured

Erick Zabel of Germany won the third stage of the Tour de France, and Tony Rominger of Switzerland is through racing in cycling’s showcase event.

Mario Cipollini of Italy held the lead and the yellow jersey by finishing 25th Tuesday.

Rominger, competing in his last Tour de France, broke his collarbone and severely cut his right leg when a group of riders fell and will miss the rest of the three-week race.

The spill came with almost six miles left in the 139-mile run from Vire to Plumelec.

“The road sometimes was too narrow,” Cipollini said. “It’s difficult not to fall.”

Rominger, 36, was one of the top riders in the early 1990s but faded the last two years. He was second in the 1993 Tour of France behind Miguel Indurain. He won the Tour of Spain three times and the Tour of Italy once. He finished 10th in last year’s Tour de France.

This year he replaced Lance Armstrong on the French Cofidis team when the Texan was diagnosed with testicular cancer last September.

Rominger was fourth in the overall standings and was making a surprising showing in the tour.

Tuesday’s stage was marked by a long breakaway by four riders. France’s Francois Simon left the other three riders late in the stage, building a one-minute gap with 10.5 miles left. But he was caught with 3.2 miles to go.

On the final long straightaway, up a slight hill, Zabel pulled ahead of Franck Vandenbroucke of Belgium. In third place was last year’s champion, Bjarne Riis of Denmark. He is still more than a minute and a half behind the leaders following a fall in the first stage.