Video: Dan Martin suffers nightmare crash at Tour de France

Dan Martin has suffered a cruel crash at the Tour de France. He has been left bloody and battered and has also lost more than one minute.

 

Video Dan Martin crash Tour de France stage 8

 

By Graham Gillespie

It was a disastrous day for Dan Martin at the Tour de France as he suffered a nasty crash that has severely dented his general classification hopes.

Martin crashed with about 16.5km to go on stage 8. As a result lost 1:15 - pushing him further  down the standings have already lost time earlier in the race.

The UAE Team Emirates rider was battered and bruised from the fall.

He had blood streaming from his left elbow and back of his jersey was also badly torn.

Some of his teammates dropped back to help him. But with the speed of the peloton picking up ahead of the sprint finish, they still lost plenty of time.

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It took a while for Martin to  get going again, looking in pain and perhaps a little dazed after the crash. He also needed a bike change.

Martin, who took a brilliant stage win just two days ago, has now  tasted the lows of  the race; a crash and time loss at exactly the wrong time.

He will get patched up and hope he sleeps well tonight and recovers ahead of tomorrow's stage. It has 15 sections of pavé on the road to Roubaix.

LottoNL-Jumbo’s Dylan Groenewegen won today; sprinting in at the head of the peloton for the second time in as many days.

Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep) and Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) were also caught up in the crash with Dan Martin.

They too got back on their bikes and limped to the finish as the sprinters and their teams jockeyed for position at the head of the peloton.

The finishing sprint was thrilling and chaotic. Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) made his move first, but it was clear he would not hold on

There was then some contact between QuickStep’s Fernando Gaviria and Lotto Soudal’s Andre Greipel; Gaviria appearing to headbutt Greipel.

This incident, and an earlier one in which Greipel used his head against another rider, would result in the relegation of both riders.

Meanwhile, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) picked up a bonus second to increase his overall lead to seven seconds ahead of tomorrow’s cobbled stage nine.

Today’s mostly flat stage to Amiens was 181 kilometres long and included two cat 4 climbs and one intermediate sprint.

Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) surged ahead in a two-man break and at one point enjoyed a six-minute gap.

Grellier, who was in the breakaway for the second day straight, took the intermediate sprint after 86.5km. He also took cat 4 in Côte de Feuquerolles.

Before that though, Minnaard took the first cat 4 Côte de Pacy-sur-Eure.

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After a slow stage, Grellier was the last man standing and was only caught with 6km to go, paving the way for a sprint.

 

The crash of Dan Martin

 

Martin jumps up in a panic

 

The damage in time gaps

 

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