Sport

Martin crash to shake up Tour

Germany's Tony Martin, wearing the overall leader's jersey, lies on the road with a broken collar bone after crashing in the last stretch of the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday<br />Picture: AP
Germany's Tony Martin, wearing the overall leader's jersey, lies on the road with a broken collar bone after crashing in the last stretch of the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday
Picture: AP
Germany's Tony Martin, wearing the overall leader's jersey, lies on the road with a broken collar bone after crashing in the last stretch of the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday
Picture: AP
(Stephane Mantey /AP)

RACE leader Tony Martin rolled over the line of stage six of the Tour de France nursing a shoulder injury following a crash which could have repercussions for Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish.

Froome began the day in second place overall, 12 seconds behind Martin, and could inherit the race leader's yellow jersey earlier than he would ideally choose after narrowly avoiding the crash which may have ended the German's race. Cavendish, Martin's Etixx-QuickStep team-mate, is still seeking a 26th Tour stage win of his career, but could be without the influence of his powerful team-mate for the rest of the Tour.

It was a bittersweet day for the Belgian squad yet again as Zdenek Stybar avoided the chaos to win the 191.5-kilometre route from Abbeville to Le Havre. It could have been far worse for Froome, who almost catapulted off his bike when Martin clipped a wheel and tumbled 900m from the finish and then slid into a Giant-Alpecin rider and then defending champion Vincenzo Nibali.

Nibali then rocked Froome, but the 2013 winner stayed upright and safe. Afterwards, Froome boarded the team bus of Nibali's Astana team to clear the air after some confusion over what had happened.

Froome wrote on Twitter, along with a video of the incident: "Managed to get through with minor graze to the knee. Hope everyone involved, especially tonymartin85, is okay.

"There was some confusion as to who caused the crash, wanted to clear that up with AstanaTeam vincenzonibali (definitely wasn't me!)." 

Martin required the support of three team-mates to remount his bike and cross the line in the yellow jersey, while cradling his left arm. He left for hospital for X-rays almost immediately and later took to Twitter to confirm a fractured collarbone.

"Collarbone is broken. We will discuss further steps," Martin wrote on Twitter.

If Martin's race is over - as appears likely - he will be the second leader to abandon this year's race while in the maillot jaune, after Fabian Cancellara's crash on stage three.