Fast Break

Cycling

Armstrong falls; Tour in doubt

With the road narrowing and cyclists piling up in front of him, Lance Armstrong tumbled hard off his bike.

He was left with a broken collarbone that will need surgery and questions about whether he’ll be able to contend for an eighth Tour de France title in July.

“I’m alive!” he wrote on his Twitter feed. “Broken clavicle (right). Hurts like hell for now. Surgery in a couple of days. Thanks for all the well wishes.”

Armstrong will fly back to the United States after being knocked out of the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon stage race in Spain.

“The crash has put my upcoming calendar in jeopardy, but the most important thing for me right now is to get back home and rest up and begin my rehab,” he said in a statement.

Armstrong is scheduled to compete in the Giro d’Italia from May 9-May 31, then the Tour de France from July 4-26.

“I think for the Giro it’s a very big problem,” Armstrong said as he left Valladolid University Hospital. “For now, the biggest problem is just the pain.”

Armstrong won seven straight Tours from 1999-2005 before retiring. He returned after 31/2 years, and at 37 was hoping for another triumphant ride through Paris.

Baseball

Schilling retires with zero regrets

Curt Schilling retired from baseball Monday, ending a career in which he won World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks and was one of the game’s most dominant pitchers and grittiest competitors.

The 42-year-old right-hander said on his blog he’s leaving after 23 years with “zero regrets.” Schilling missed all of last season with a shoulder injury after signing a one-year, $8 million contract.

“The things I was allowed to experience, the people I was able to call friends, teammates, mentors, coaches and opponents, the travel, all of it, are far more than anything I ever thought possible in my lifetime,” he wrote.

Schilling had surgery last June and had said he might come back in the middle of this season though he was not under contract. He made no reference to his injury on his blog.