More riders quit before Tour's seventh stage

A reduced peloton of 182 riders started the seventh stage of the Tour de France Saturday a day after a mass pile-up led to 12 abandons and many riders nursing injury and severe road rash. American Tom Danielson (Garmin), Davide Vigano (Lampre) and Spaniard Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel) quit the race prior to the stage finish in Metz where Slovakian Peter Sagan took his third win of the race. Spaniard Oscar Freire (Katusha), Belgian Maarten Wynants (Rabobank) and Dutchman Wouter Poels of Vacansoleil were confirmed as having quit the race after the stage. On Saturday morning more casualties were added to the list with Spaniards Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel), Imanol Erviti and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (both Movistar), Canada's Ryder Hesjedal and South African Robert Hunter (both Garmin) and Frenchman Hubert Dupont (AG2R-La Mondiale) all pulling out. It brings the number of retirements from the race to 16 since the start in Liege a week ago. Dutchman Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Team Sky) had all quit prior to Friday's stage because of injuries suffered in crashes. Germany Marcel Kittel of Argos-Shimano withdrew after 40km of racing Thursday having suffered from a stomach virus since Monday. Swiss Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack started the stage in the race leader's yellow jersey with a 7sec lead on Britain's Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and a 17s lead on Australia's defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC).