Alberto Contador was one of the high profile victims of the crash at 5km to go on stage 1(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Omega Pharma Quick Step's Tony Martin was the worst injured in the huge crash at 5km, arriving with blood streaming down his leg and multiple other wounds(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin's left hip, arm and leg looked painful(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
His team mate Gert Steegmans was also involved, and had leg wounds(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Tony Martin's back showed the full extrent of the damage, with much of his clothing shredded by the crash(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin's saddle was heavily damaged(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
His left shifter was also scuffed(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin's left rear quick release skewer(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin's crashed bike(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Tony Martin's front tubular rolled in the crash(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin's front tyre(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Tony Martin being moved by stretcher from the team bus to the waiting ambulance an hour after the finish(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Cannondale's Ted King began his first Tour de France suffering to the linewith damage to his left shoulder(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Thomas's back showed obvious signs of a tumble(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Geraint Thomas of Sky looked uncomfortable as he crossed the finish line(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Looking to have taken a tumble, Contador had damage to the left shoulde, right arm and back of his jersey, plus his left hip(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Contador's right arm shows abrasions(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
World Champion Phillipe Gilbert also came down, crossing the line with a cut knee and bent brake lever(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
BMC's Tejay van Garderen(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
One of the favourites for the stage, Peter Sagan, was derailed by the huge crash, looking despondent as he finished with obvious to his left side(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Sagan also had ripped shorts and some damage to the back of his jersey(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Sky's Ian Stannard looked to have come in to contact with a chain ring, and had some abrasions on his right leg in a crash with 12km to go(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Julien El Fares had blood running from cuts on his keft leg and damage to his left shoulder(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Vacansoleil's Jonny Hoogerland was unlucky to be involved in the earlier crash as well with damage to his left side(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Hoogerland's bike after the stage showed obvious blood marks on the top tube(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Hoogerland's Super Record EPS shifter was somewhat the worse for wear(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
Martin being placed in the ambulance(Image credit: Robin Wilmott)
The official Tour de France medical bulletin listed 15 riders' injuries after Saturday's crash-filled stage but many more riders also ended the stage battered, bruised and with frayed nerves after a chaotic finale and what Sunday's L'Equipe newspaper headlines as "Quinze kilometres de folie".
Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was perhaps the worst off, passing out on the team bus due to his multiple injuries. Other riders were left nursing minor wounds and perhaps cursing Le Tour and the chaos sparked by the Orica-GreenEdge bus getting tick under the finish arch and the consequential decision to change the finish point of the stage twice while the riders were just 10km from the finish.
The finish of the stage seemed like a battlefield, with riders covered in blood, bandages and angry about what happened. Their bikes were also damaged, giving the team mechanics plenty of work to do.
Checkout this gallery of images of Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), Ian Stannard (Team Sky), Ted King (Cannondale). Tony Martin was taken off the team bus and to hospital in a stretcher.
It was a brutal first day at the Tour de France, with two more stages remaining on the narrow, twisty roads of Corsica.
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
