Briton falls before first cobbled section but rejoins peloton
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Team Sky pacing Froome back to the peloton(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky) after his fall(Image credit: AFP)
Chris Froome’s travails continued in the opening kilometres of stage 5 of the Tour de France, as he crashed for the second time in as many days. The Sky rider hit the ground in a crash after 35 kilometres on roads made greasy by persistent rain.
Froome remounted after a quick bike change but trailed the peloton by a minute before he was paced back up to the main field by three of his Sky teammates.
The Briton appeared to fall on his right side, but in spite of some small tears to his kit, he did not seem to have sustained any significant injuries in the crash. He had fallen on his left side on stage 4 and picked up a wrist injury in the process.
Rain is general over northern France on Wednesday, and two of the projected nine sectors of cobbles on the route of stage 5 were removed by the race jury shortly before the stage began.
The treacherous conditions in the opening kilometres also saw two of the riders in the day's early break - Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r-La Mondiale) - fall, as well as Janier Acevedo (Garmin-Sharp). They were all able to remount and continue in the race.
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