Tony Martin crashed in a frantic finale to stage six of the Tour de France in Le Havre on Thursday before the overall race leader rolled over the line nursing an injured shoulder.
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Among the top favorites, defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) fell in the incident, as well as Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
“I was unlucky. I don’t even remember how I went down. That’s the Tour. Good luck and bad luck go together”, said Martin.
Martin required the support of three team-mates to remount his bike and cross the line in the yellow jersey, while cradling his left arm after landing on his shoulder.
“I hope I will be able to continue, but we will have to see how bad [the shoulder] is”. Others followed. Stybar managed to sneak through and stole a march to win by two seconds from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), who was second for a second successive day.
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena). Spectators cheer as Eritrea’s Daniel Teklehaimanot strains during the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race, an individual time trial over 13.8 kilometers (8.57 miles), with start and Finish in Utrecht, Netherlands, … “But it’s the Tour de France; it’s just crazy, crazy”.
“I guarantee you that it would make the front page of L’Equipe newspaper if it happened in football”.
Nibali got back up and finished the stage, as did Quintana, who had blood dripping from his hand.
Nibali said: “The teams always want to be at the front”.
“There was some confusion as to who caused the crash, wanted to clear that up with @AstanaTeam @vincenzonibali (definitely wasn’t me!)”. Froome tweeted.
Martin leads British rider Chris Froome by 12 seconds and Tejay Van Garderen by 25.
Despite two broken ribs, sustained in Monday’s stage 3 crash, Australian rider Michael Matthews took the start line – highlighting how tough the race has been so far.
The MTN-Qhubeka rider is part of a three-man breakaway that escaped after 5 kilometers Thursday en route to Le Havre, alongside Perrig Quemeneur and Kenneth Van Bilsen (Cofidis).
Teklehaimanot scored points in the battle for the King of the Mountains jersey, meaning he will wear the famed polka-dot jersey on stage 7.
“I’m not a specialist, I’m not a doctor, but riders are specialists”, general manager Patrick Lefevere told VeloNews. The average speed in the first hour was a meager 38.4 kilometers (23.6) per hour as the riders passed through the Picardy region of northern France and into Normandy.
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Martin, despite wearing the yellow jersey, was trying to help set up Cavendish for the finish but he clipped the wheel of Bryan Coquard in front of him, wobbled and then fell into the rider to his right, with Nibali next to that and brought down in the melee.
