There was a lot of drama on today’s opening stage of the Tour de France with numerous riders getting caught up in crashes or suffering mechanicals in the closing ten kilometres of the stage from Noirmoutier-en-l’Île to Fontenay-le-Comte.

Amongst the GC contenders to lose time were Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) who finished 51″ down and Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) who lost 1’15”. Four-time winner Chris Froome (Team Sky) also finished on the same time as Porte and Yates after crashing in the closing kilometres.

The Briton escaped injury as he explained afterwards: “I’m just grateful I’m not injured in any way and there’s a lot of road to cover before Paris obviously.”

Froome’s crash was caught on onboard footage thanks to a handlebar-mounted camera on the bike of Belgian rider Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal) who was riding behind Froome.

Froome can be seen making his way up the right-hand side of the bunch with about six kilometres remaining before being edged off the narrow road. He quickly remounted to limit his losses.

The stage was by Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), who held off the charge of Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin).

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