Chris Froome was caught in a nasty crash with 7.5km to go on stage one of the Tour de France 2021, losing 14 minutes as he battled on to eventually cross the finish line.
Froome was one of the dozens of riders caught in a huge fall on the opening day, TV cameras capturing the four-time winner on the ground, assessing his condition before remounting and finishing the stage alongside Israel Start-Up Nation team-mate Omer Goldstein.
The crash occurred just before the final climb to Landerneau, the steep gradients at the start of the ascent causing further splits in the field, the peloton arriving at the finish in dribs and drabs behind stage winner and first yellow jersey of this year's race, Julian Alaphilippe.
"Not how I planned for today to go but I managed to finish," Froome tweeted after the stage. "Off for some scans I will update this evening. I hope everyone else who came down is okay."
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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) also lost more than five minutes, while Valverde's team leader Miguel Ángel López lost nearly two minutes alongside Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma).
Primož Roglič, Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas all finished in the top 10 on the same time, although Roglič's third-place finish gave him four bonus seconds. Richard Carapaz led the next group on the road over the line five second behind Thomas as early gaps in the general classification emerged.
Stage one saw three riders fail to finish after the crash-marred day, before the big one in the finale a spectator's sign brought down Jumbo-Visma's Tony Martin with a domino effect then ensuing.
DSM's Jasha Sütterlin was the first abandon after that incident, followed by Groupama-FDJ's Ignatas Konovalovas and B&B Hotels Cyril Lemoine.
