With NBA Title Won, LeBron Turns to London

James's performances have been at such a level that he is comparable in status to soccer's Lionel Messi - the undoubted greatest of his generation and a player whose career is sure to be ranked among the very best in his sport.

Yet while even the most fervent fans of rival teams would never question Argentine Messi's status in world soccer, James has been jeered and booed by fans across the United States and faced an American media that has leapt on any hint of weakness.

The hostility toward the 27-year-old may be hard for fans outside of the world of American sport to understand. James was a free agent in 2010, out of contract, and chose to team up with fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat.

After seven years with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where the supporting cast rarely looked capable of giving him the help he needed to win an NBA title, James joined forces with two players he believed could become a dominant championship winning team.

Naturally, Cleveland fans were upset at losing their star player who they had drafted out of high school, but unlike in international soccer, where players change clubs frequently in search of glory or better rewards, many NBA watchers felt James was wrong to ally himself with other great players.

"There is no way I would have joined Magic (Johnson) or Michael Jordan and play with them," Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s, said at the time of the move.

"The only time I ever wanted to play with Magic was on the Olympic team, and even then our practices were hard, and we beat each other up in practice."

Yet the Olympic experience James enjoyed in Beijing with Bosh and Wade was in many ways the seed of the move - all three were heading to free agency at the same time and began to wonder what they could achieve together.

The big mistake James made, as even he and his supporters now concede, was announcing his move in a nationally televised special where he pompously announced he was "taking my talents to South Beach."

Although the show was primarily a way of raising money for charity it was no way to treat the Cleveland fans, especially coming from a native of Ohio, and it was clear that James had been badly served by his advisors.

OUTSTANDING DISPLAYS

During his first season in Miami the team was heavily booed on the road, James in particular, and it felt like most of the nation was urging German Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in their eventual triumph in the 2011 NBA Finals.

A remarkable performer at both ends of the court, James was labeled a 'choker' for failing to come up with big plays late in games during the finals before spending the off-season working on his few weak areas.

This year James, voted the league's Most Valuable Player of the regular season and title series, responded with a series of outstanding displays and especially when it mattered most.

He averaged 30.5 points in the playoffs and delivered a triple double in the decisive game five of the finals with 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds.

"I don't know what people will say now," Miami's experienced reserve Juwan Howard said. "He's done everything now. What are they going to try to beat him up about now? What'd he do wrong this time?"

What makes the hate affair with LeBron even stranger is that, aside from his outstanding physical ability and talent, he is also quite an engaging personality.

"When you get to know LeBron, you don't understand why he was such a lightning rod for the criticism and all of just the incessant critiques about a player who embodies all the qualities you want of a champion," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

"You spend ten minutes with him, you absolutely love the guy because he's so engaging. He's one of the most charismatic people I've ever been around. He's giving. He's an incredible team mate."

Even the main threat to his dream of a first NBA title, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, had nothing but praise for James after the series ended - just as well given the players will be team mates in London.

"The guy is an unbelievable player and an unbelievable person. ... It was a storybook season for him," said Durant.

"That guy played phenomenal basketball all season. Hopefully we can get a gold medal together this summer."

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

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Wild Owner: Free Agent Bonanza 'a Game Changer'

The Wild had opened the summer hoping to land one of the two biggest prizes on the market — either Suter or forward Zach Parise — to bolster a franchise that has missed the postseason for four straight seasons.

At one point during the meeting, Suter's agent, Neil Sheehy, looked at Leipold and Fletcher and essentially issued a challenge.

"He said to us, 'Are you guys committed enough that you're in for both of these guys?'" Leipold recalled from his hotel room in New York on Thursday. "Chuck kind of looks at me and said, 'Can we talk for a second?'"

The two men stepped aside to digest the possibilities and the costs of making the unthinkable a reality. They plunged ahead, stunning the league when they signed Parise and Suter to matching 13-year, $98 million deals Wednesday, immediately energizing a franchise that was finally starting to see some apathy set in among its fans.

"This is a game changer," Leipold said, still euphoric some 24 hours later. "We're overnight changing who we are. We're changing our identity. We'll never get that opportunity again."

If any franchise needed it, it was the one in the "State of Hockey." The Wild enjoyed a decade-long honeymoon with their fans after coming into the league as an expansion team at the turn of the century. The hockey-hungry fans were happy to simply have the pro game back in town after losing the North Stars to Dallas.

Leipold bought the Wild in 2008, but the team has gone through a painful rebuilding period and had difficulty finding new stars to replace Marian Gaborik, who left for the New York Rangers in 2009.

As much of a fan as he is a businessman, Leipold desperately wanted to inject some sizzle into a roster short on star power this summer. But as late as Monday night, he feared the team was going to come away empty-handed.

"We didn't think we were going to get either one," he said. "We heard Detroit was hot on Suter. All we know is what we're reading. We were hearing we were up against Pittsburgh, Chicago, teams that have won in the last three or four years. These aren't just your normal run-of-the-mill teams. They're winning right now."

It turns out that Parise and Suter spent much of Monday and Tuesday talking to each other, researching the teams and trying to make a joint decision on where to play. In the end, they saw the list of promising young prospects Fletcher has assembled, the strong goaltending that has been the team's hallmark for years and a market that was close to home for both players and decided to make the move to Minnesota.

"This is a huge commitment on Craig's part, on our organization's part," Fletcher said. "It took a lot of courage and commitment for all of us to go after these players."

For an owner who said his grandfather "would roll over in his grave" if he knew Leipold was paying $7 to drink a bottle of water in his hotel room, the enormity of the cost — $196 million as the league and its players are locked in negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement — did give him pause.

"I remember talking to (COO) Matt Majka," Leipold said. "I said, 'Matt can you do it? How much more can you sell?' This is a business decision. He said, 'I can't even answer that. I have no comparable situation to use. This is like starting over. I can only tell you it's going to be huge.' That was it. That was the decision. And we said ok."

The impact has been immediate. The Wild sold more than 700 season tickets on Wednesday while many of their fans were out of town at lake cabins celebrating the Fourth of July.

"We are going to be able to skip ahead four or five steps of development and recruiting costs to get to a place that could take us three years to get to," Leipold said. "And we can do it now."

For a medium-sized sports market that has seen so many players leave for bigger cities and bigger pay days throughout the years, it was a momentous move. A team in flyover country was able to land the two best players available over long-established powers like Detroit, Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

"It is starting to sink in," Leipold said. "To get two players of the caliber that we did with Zach and Ryan is just one of those things that when you start this mission to make the team better, you have holes on the team you want to fill. Your dream is to be able to fill those with players of that caliber. But we never thought we could get both of them."

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Wolves Bring Roy Aboard, Hope to Add Batum

Roy agreed to terms of a two-year deal worth $10.4 million Thursday night, and Minnesota also agreed to terms with Batum on a four-year, $45 million deal with bonuses that could make the deal worth more than $50 million.

Roy announced his retirement in December after battling chronic knee injuries, and the Blazers used the amnesty clause on the remaining $63 million of his deal to make him an unrestricted free agent. But after receiving treatments on his knees over the last few months, Roy is ready to try to resume his career and will sign the offer sheet July 11 when the free agent moratorium ends.

Batum's path to Minnesota will be much more difficult. As a restricted free agent, the Blazers can match any offer made to Batum. But his agent told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Batum is hoping Portland doesn't match Minnesota's offer or executes a sign and trade to get him to his preferred destination.

Batum and agent Bouna Ndiaye met with Blazers officials Thursday and informed them that the versatile swingman feels his best fit is in Minnesota.

"It was a very cordial meeting. There were no hard feelings," Ndiaye said. "So Nicolas basically talked about his four years with the Blazers and he expressed that maybe it was time for him to look at a place where he could be more happy."

The Blazers have been adamant that they will match any offer for Batum and weren't interested in trading the 23-year-old Frenchman. Ndiaye said Batum has great respect for the Blazers and their fans, but believes playing for Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman and alongside point guard Ricky Rubio and forward Kevin Love is the best situation for him.

Batum has averaged 10.2 points and 3.9 rebounds over four seasons with Portland, part of the reason the Blazers see him as such a valuable piece moving forward.

"We appreciated the face-to-face meeting to get our message across," Blazers general manager Neil Olshey told The Oregonian. "And that message was that we intend to match any offer and we will not facilitate any sign-and-trade scenarios."

Batum visited Minnesota this week and met with owner Glen Taylor, team president David Kahn and Adelman and was sold on the franchise's direction and the Twin Cities. Ndiaye said Batum is hoping the Blazers will do for him what the Suns did for Steve Nash and grant his request to move on to a place where he can be happy and competitive.

"Nicolas said 'I really respect the Blazers' organization, the Blazers' fans,'" Ndiaye said. "He even mentioned he really loved to be coached by (former assistant) Monty Williams, who was a mentor. But his choice, his heart went to Minneapolis."

Things started to sour for Batum and Portland in January when the Blazers didn't sign him to a long-term extension, saying at the time that they considered him a big part of their future but wanted to retain salary cap flexibility before reaching a deal with him. Ndiaye said Batum felt stifled in Portland's system and wanted to spend less time standing in the corner and shooting 3-pointers and more time breaking down defenders off the dribble and getting to the rim.

"Nicolas expressed this during his meeting with the Blazers," Ndiaye said. "He was never himself. He has mentioned this in the meeting. He said, 'I just want to be me. I don't want to stand in the corner. I'm a player with movement. I was locked up in the corner. So he has expressed that for sure."

The one thing that could complicate Portland's plan to keep Batum is a reported max offer to Indiana center Roy Hibbert. If Hibbert takes the deal, and Minnesota's offer is big enough, the Blazers could be hampered financially starting in 2013-14, when the new collective bargaining agreement levies much harsher fiscal penalties for exceeding the salary cap.

The 27-year-old Roy, meanwhile, is returning to the place where it all began, albeit very briefly. The Timberwolves drafted Roy in 2006, but traded him that night for Villanova guard Randy Foye. Former GM Kevin McHale's decision to make the deal haunted the franchise for years, as Roy emerged as one of the bright young stars in the league and one of the game's top closers, while Foye languished through injuries and had difficulty making an impact before being traded to Washington in 2009.

"Welcome Brandon Roy," tweeted Wolves forward Derrick Williams, who wore Roy's No. 7 in Minnesota last season. "(No.) 7 is all yours."

But one of the reasons McHale made the decision was concern about Roy's knees, and a lack of cartilage severely limited him in 2010-11, when he averaged just 12.2 points, 27.9 minutes and shot 40 percent from the field.

Roy also was being courted by Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland, Dallas and Golden State, but ultimately chose Minnesota, where he'll be relied upon to provide a veteran presence on a very young team while likely playing smaller minutes, at least at first, to maximize his production. The Oregonian first reported Roy's decision.

Kahn, Taylor, Adelman and Wolves athletic trainer Greg Farnam visited Roy in Seattle last week to make a hard push for him. Roy is also close with Wolves assistant Bill Bayno, who coached him in Portland.

Bayno also is a big part of Batum's desire to play in Minnesota. The two remain close and Batum rents Bayno's house in Portland.

"Nicolas is really anxious to join and play with a great unselfish point guard, excited to play with a young team that thinks he is the missing piece," Ndiaye said. "He had a great feel with the coach Rick Adelman and Nicolas thinks this is a system that will fit him."

___

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Wolves Bring Roy Aboard, Hope to Add Batum

Roy agreed to terms of a two-year deal worth $10.4 million Thursday night, and Minnesota also agreed to terms with Batum on a four-year, $45 million deal with bonuses that could make the deal worth more than $50 million.

Roy announced his retirement in December after battling chronic knee injuries, and the Blazers used the amnesty clause on the remaining $63 million of his deal to make him an unrestricted free agent. But after receiving treatments on his knees over the last few months, Roy is ready to try to resume his career and will sign the offer sheet July 11 when the free agent moratorium ends.

Batum's path to Minnesota will be much more difficult. As a restricted free agent, the Blazers can match any offer made to Batum. But his agent told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Batum is hoping Portland doesn't match Minnesota's offer or executes a sign and trade to get him to his preferred destination.

Batum and agent Bouna Ndiaye met with Blazers officials Thursday and informed them that the versatile swingman feels his best fit is in Minnesota.

"It was a very cordial meeting. There were no hard feelings," Ndiaye said. "So Nicolas basically talked about his four years with the Blazers and he expressed that maybe it was time for him to look at a place where he could be more happy."

The Blazers have been adamant that they will match any offer for Batum and weren't interested in trading the 23-year-old Frenchman. Ndiaye said Batum has great respect for the Blazers and their fans, but believes playing for Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman and alongside point guard Ricky Rubio and forward Kevin Love is the best situation for him.

Batum has averaged 10.2 points and 3.9 rebounds over four seasons with Portland, part of the reason the Blazers see him as such a valuable piece moving forward.

"We appreciated the face-to-face meeting to get our message across," Blazers general manager Neil Olshey told The Oregonian. "And that message was that we intend to match any offer and we will not facilitate any sign-and-trade scenarios."

Batum visited Minnesota this week and met with owner Glen Taylor, team president David Kahn and Adelman and was sold on the franchise's direction and the Twin Cities. Ndiaye said Batum is hoping the Blazers will do for him what the Suns did for Steve Nash and grant his request to move on to a place where he can be happy and competitive.

"Nicolas said 'I really respect the Blazers' organization, the Blazers' fans,'" Ndiaye said. "He even mentioned he really loved to be coached by (former assistant) Monty Williams, who was a mentor. But his choice, his heart went to Minneapolis."

Things started to sour for Batum and Portland in January when the Blazers didn't sign him to a long-term extension, saying at the time that they considered him a big part of their future but wanted to retain salary cap flexibility before reaching a deal with him. Ndiaye said Batum felt stifled in Portland's system and wanted to spend less time standing in the corner and shooting 3-pointers and more time breaking down defenders off the dribble and getting to the rim.

"Nicolas expressed this during his meeting with the Blazers," Ndiaye said. "He was never himself. He has mentioned this in the meeting. He said, 'I just want to be me. I don't want to stand in the corner. I'm a player with movement. I was locked up in the corner. So he has expressed that for sure."

The one thing that could complicate Portland's plan to keep Batum is a reported max offer to Indiana center Roy Hibbert. If Hibbert takes the deal, and Minnesota's offer is big enough, the Blazers could be hampered financially starting in 2013-14, when the new collective bargaining agreement levies much harsher fiscal penalties for exceeding the salary cap.

The 27-year-old Roy, meanwhile, is returning to the place where it all began, albeit very briefly. The Timberwolves drafted Roy in 2006, but traded him that night for Villanova guard Randy Foye. Former GM Kevin McHale's decision to make the deal haunted the franchise for years, as Roy emerged as one of the bright young stars in the league and one of the game's top closers, while Foye languished through injuries and had difficulty making an impact before being traded to Washington in 2009.

"Welcome Brandon Roy," tweeted Wolves forward Derrick Williams, who wore Roy's No. 7 in Minnesota last season. "(No.) 7 is all yours."

But one of the reasons McHale made the decision was concern about Roy's knees, and a lack of cartilage severely limited him in 2010-11, when he averaged just 12.2 points, 27.9 minutes and shot 40 percent from the field.

Roy also was being courted by Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland, Dallas and Golden State, but ultimately chose Minnesota, where he'll be relied upon to provide a veteran presence on a very young team while likely playing smaller minutes, at least at first, to maximize his production. The Oregonian first reported Roy's decision.

Kahn, Taylor, Adelman and Wolves athletic trainer Greg Farnam visited Roy in Seattle last week to make a hard push for him. Roy is also close with Wolves assistant Bill Bayno, who coached him in Portland.

Bayno also is a big part of Batum's desire to play in Minnesota. The two remain close and Batum rents Bayno's house in Portland.

"Nicolas is really anxious to join and play with a great unselfish point guard, excited to play with a young team that thinks he is the missing piece," Ndiaye said. "He had a great feel with the coach Rick Adelman and Nicolas thinks this is a system that will fit him."

___

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Goal: Yanks Abroad: Davies Moves to Denmark

The former United States international Charlie Davies has signed a contract with Randers, which was recently promoted to the Superliga in Denmark.

After playing in college at Boston College, Davies began his professional career at Hammarby in Sweden, where he excelled and earned a transfer to Sochaux of France’s Ligue 1 in 2009.

In 2009, Davies had his best season at the club level and with the United States national team before he was involved in a serious automobile accident on Oct. 13, 2009. Davies, a passenger, was seriously injured, while another passenger was killed. The injuries derailed Davies’s career and left him idle 2010.

In 2011 Davies, 26, was loaned to D.C. United for the Major League Soccer season, scoring 11 goals in 26 appearances. Davies struggled to earn playing time and appeared in only two matches for a total of 23 minutes when he returned to Sochaux in 2012.

This past week, Sochaux and Davies agreed to terminate his contract, enabling his move to Randers.

“Charlie has signed a two-year deal with Randers,” Lyle Yorks, Davies agent, said in an e-mail. “After a week of discussions with Sochaux we came to a mutual agreement on terms to terminate his final year of the contract, which paved the way for today’s signing.”

In the 2011-12 season, Randers finished second in the Danish first division and earned promotion to the Superliga. Davies becomes the fourth American player in that league, joining Nordsjaelland’s Michael Parkhurst, SonderjyskE’s Conor O’Brien and Brondy’s Clarence Goodson.

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Sagan Beats Greipel for Third Stage Victory

The 22-year-old Slovak outpaced the leading part of a scattered bunch to achieve a spectacular treble ahead of Germany's Andre Greipel, the winner of the two previous stages and one of many riders to hit the tarmac between Epernay and Metz.

Australian Matthew Goss took third while Swiss Fabian Cancellara, who also avoided the worst pile-up of the day, retained his overall leader's yellow jersey.

"I won five in California, four in Switzerland, now three in France. I didn't expect to win that many stages in my first Tour but why stop now?" said Sagan, who went tumbling to the tarmac in the previous stage.

"I was lucky to be unhurt. In stages like this, everybody wants to be in the front and it causes unnecessary crashes," he told reporters.

Some Tour contenders were not so lucky and three riders, American Tom Danielson, Italy's Davide Vigano and Spain's Mikel Astarloza were forced to bid farewell to the race.

World champion Mark Cavendish was held up in the chaos which took place 26 kilometres from the finish and was, therefore, unable to be part of the final sprint, but other riders have probably lost the Tour even before Saturday's first mountain stage.

American team Garmin were among the hardest hit, losing Danielson, eighth last year, while their Canadian leader Ryder Hesjedal, escorted by David Millar and Tyler Farrar, finished more than 13 minutes off the pace.

The Giro d'Italia champion was sent to hospital for checks after crossing the line.

FIRST MOUNTAIN STAGE

"We'll have to change our game plan now and cheer each other up. We'll get over it," said Garmin's David Zabriskie, who launched the day's long break and was caught under the last kilometre marker.

Among the other top-flight riders held up in the day's crashes were Luxembourg's Frank Schleck and Spain's Alejandro Valverde, who both lost 2:09, while Dutchman Robert Gesink finished 3:31 adrift.

"It hurts all over. It was awful. Hopefully nothing's broken," said Schleck, who finished third overall last year.

RadioShack rider Cancellara, who leads Briton Bradley Wiggins by seven seconds in the general classification, spent his 28th day in total in the yellow jersey but conceded it would probably be the last this Tour.

The peloton reaches the first serious climbs in the 199-km seventh stage ending at the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles.

"Someone else will probably hold the jersey tomorrow. I will now need to recuperate from the physical and the mental stress of the jersey and concentrate on the time trials ahead," Cancellara said.

Sagan, who is not yet a mountain specialist, will also wait for flatter days to shine again and defend his lead in the points classification.

"My goal now is to reach Paris with the green jersey. The Tour is still very long and it's important to save some energy for the third week," he said.

(Editing By Alison Wildey)

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On Par: Golf Balls Not All Created Equal, but They're Getting Better

Of all the golf equipment advancements in the last 15 years, nothing compares to the improvements made to the once simple, flawed golf ball. The most expensive golf balls are technological marvels, and the best values are probably one step below the highest end of the market.

Meanwhile, high handicappers who lose a lot of golf balls and therefore do not want to spend more than 75 cents per new ball are no longer relegated to rock hard, inferior orbs found only in discount racks where you would pick through a collection of what seemed like industry rejects.

It’s a different world now. I was recently at a Golf Galaxy, and they were selling two 15-ball boxes of the Noodle golf ball for $25. The Noodle may not be a premium ball, but it is especially helpful for those with swing speeds of about 85 miles an hour or less (the majority of golfers). And it’s a deal.

Near the Noodle, they were selling a dozen Top-Flite Gamer V2 balls for $20. That may be the best three-piece ball by price you will find anywhere. And it tends to sell out quickly.

At the high end of the category, where balls sell for $40 a dozen or more, it’s hard to go wrong with any brand. They’re all high-performance balls. The Titleist Pro V1 and V1x ($48) are the runaway best sellers for a reason. But Nike’s 20XI balls ($46 a dozen) have made technological advances. Callaway, unlike most everyone else, has done us all a service and lowered the confusion by combining its premium offerings into one ball: the Hex Black Tour ($46).

But the most fruitful place to shop for golf balls if you aren’t losing, say, six balls per round is in the middle of the pack. A few favorites: Callaway’s Hex Chrome ($36), which is a tour quality golf ball in disguise; Titleist’s Velocity ($27), a distance ball from the industry leader; and Nike’s Vapor Black ($25), forgiving and longer at a nice price.

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2012 London Olympics Blog: Parker Will Play for France in Olympics, but Noah Won't

Regis Duvignau/ReutersTony Parker is France’s best player.

Doctors have cleared the way for Tony Parker to play for France in the Olympics, a huge boost for France’s hopes of winning a basketball medal for only the third time in Olympic history.

Parker’s status was in question after he sustained an eye injury during a fight at a New York nightclub last month, but the French basketball federation announced on Friday that two doctors commissioned by the San Antonio Spurs cleared him to play and that Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich had given him the O.K.

Parker posted the news on his Twitter page and added photos of his new protective glasses.

Je viens d’arriver à Paris avec une bonne nouvelle. Je vais aux JO !!!!!!!!! Je suis super content, j’ai eu le… http://t.co/2EN6P7B1

— tony Parker (@tp9network) 6 Jul 12

First practice with the glasses lol http://t.co/eGloyEkB

— tony Parker (@tp9network) 6 Jul 12

Understandably, his French coach, Vincent Collet, is thrilled that Parker will play. France has twice won a silver medal in the Olympics, in 1948 and 2000. Led by a series of spectacular performances by Parker, France finished second in EuroBasket 2011, raising hopes for another Olympic medal.

“It is great news and a relief for the whole France team,” Collet told The Associated Press. “I spoke with Tony on the phone and he sounded very happy — and also relieved — about this development. It was a difficult and alarming situation for everyone.”

The good news was tempered by the absence of Joakim Noah, the Bulls center who was ruled out of the Olympics after a knee injury knocked him out of the N.B.A. playoffs.

Tony Parker on WhoSay

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Bielsa's Future at Bilbao in Doubt After Turbulent Week

Club president Josu Urrutia and Bielsa left the meeting without speaking to reporters, failing to dampen Spanish media speculation that the eccentric and outspoken Argentine was considering his position.

The problem blew up at the beginning of the week when the team returned to start pre-season training after the holidays, and Bielsa lost his temper with contractors carrying out renovation work at the Lezama training facilities.

The Argentine gave a lengthy news conference on Thursday when he apologised for the way in which he had acted, but insisted the work was shoddy and behind schedule and that he was only defending the club's interests.

He accused the contractors of "ripping-off, robbing, and deceiving" the club, but Bilbao's board responded on Friday with a strongly-worded statement on their website saying they completely disagreed with their coach on all counts.

"(The club) apologise publicly for the damage that has been done to the construction company and their workers by an employee of Athletic Bilbao," the Basque side said.

The former Argentina and Chile boss joined Bilbao at the beginning of last season guiding them to the finals of the Europa League and King's Cup, only to lose both to Atletico Madrid and Barcelona respectively.

(Reporting by Mark Elkington, editing by Ken Ferris)

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Garmin and Hesjedal Savaged by Latest Crash

The Garmin-Sharp team was left in tatters, with shirts and skin layers ripped to shreds, as Giro d'Italia champion Hesjedal lost more than 13 minutes in a smash described by team mate David Millar as the worst he had been involved in.

American Tom Danielson suffered more than Canadian Hesjedal, quitting the race because of injuries which put him in hospital.

"We've lost most of our chances for everything in the Tour de France," Garmin director Allan Peiper told reporters as he emerged from his car after the sixth stage.

"At this moment I can't see what a successful Tour might be."

David Zabriskie, who was 72nd and the first Garmin rider to finish, was the only one of the team not on the casualty list.

"I just heard from the doctor that Tom Danielson's body is pretty beaten up and he has already got a displaced shoulder so he has gone to hospital," Peiper added.

"It's definitely a week to forget, sometimes it doesn't work. We've got so many guys who are injured. Hesjedal looks like he's got a haematoma at the top of his leg, we'll see what the doctors say about that."

MASS CRASH

A confident Hesjedal had talked up his chances of victory in the three-week race having triumphed at the Giro in May but the mass crash 30-km from the finish in Metz could lead to his withdrawal.

He was well placed in ninth overall - 18 seconds behind yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara - before the pileup on the flat stage which was won by rising starlet Peter Sagan.

The 31-year-old Hesjedal is now down in 108th place with no hope of recovering the ground even if his wounds heal quickly.

Almost all of Garmin's riders were caught up in the chaos, a day after mayhem led Tyler Farrar to try to storm a rival team bus after feeling aggrieved at tumbling in another smash.

Some riders say team messages through earpieces are distracting them and others have suggested the high number of early crashes are down to teams not riding as teams like normal, meaning individuals have less protection from the "train".

Team Sky and BMC managed to stay ahead of the carnage to keep race favourite Bradley Wiggins and defending champion Cadel Evans safe, seven and 17 seconds respectively behind Cancellara who expects to lose the lead on Saturday's first mountain stage.

"It's the worst I've ever been in. It just shouldn't happen. We were ploughing into each other at 60-70 kph at hour," Millar said.

"I was lucky I think, I was in the third wave (of the crash) so I started landing on guys and then bikes were hitting me and chains were going off and all over me," added the Briton, pointing to a long, bloody gash on his arm.

"I think Ryder is out as well, we'll see."

Other top names such as RadioShack's Frank Schleck and world champion Mark Cavendish were also held up by the crash.

U.S. outfit Garmin have been in the news throughout the Tour with management denying part of a report on Thursday which said four of the team had agreed to six-month suspended sentences in return for testimony against Lance Armstrong in a doping probe.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)

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