Shock as Froome exits Tour after crashing twice on stage five

The 29-year-old Team Sky rider tumbled to the tarmac on Tuesday's fourth stage, damaging his wrist.

He started the cobbled fifth stage from Ypres to Arenburg Porte du Hinaut, which took place in torrential rain which slickened the roads.

Froome crashed early on the route before a second crash 85-kilometres in saw him end his defence by taking his place in the back of the Team Sky car.

The stage commemorates 100 years since the start of World War One and features many of the cobbles used in the Paris-Roubaix one-day race 'the Hell of the North'.

Wet weather forced race organisers to remove two of the nine cobbled sections, but Froome's falls came prior even to the first section of cobbles he had been dreading since the route was announced last autumn.

The sad sight of Froome, dominant in winning the 2013 Tour, grimacing by the roadside was reminiscent of Sir Bradley Wiggins' abandonment with a broken collarbone in the first week of the 2011 Tour.