Karpets out at Tour de France

Russian rider Vladimir Karpets of Team Katusha has dropped out of the Tour de France after breaking his hand in a crash earlier in the race.

The team says a special diagnostic scan on its leader turned up a broken bone in his left palm from an injury sustained in Stage 2 on July 5.

An X-ray right after the crash didn’t show the full extent of the damage.

Karpets said in a team statement before Tuesday’s ninth stage that he had trouble holding the handlebars and “in such conditions it be no sense to continue.”

Karpets took home the best young rider’s jersey at the Tour in 2004, and after Sunday’s eight stage was 57th — 26 minutes, 1 second behind race leader Cadel Evans.