Richie Porte abandons the Tour before reaching Roubaix's Cobbles

Suspected collar bone fracture in huge crash, as panic stricken peloton readies for Roubaix Cobbles

In heartbreaking scenes, less than 10 kms into Stage 9's grueling stage over the Cobbles to Roubaix, Richie Porte was seen on the deck clutching his shoulder in desperate scenes. Within minutes Porte was hauled off to hospital undergo further assessment, whilst fans looked on in disbelief, the second consecutive year Porte has been hauled off in an ambulance.

Porte's team mates looked utterly depressed afterwards knowing how much work they have put in to help their GC contender win this year's Tour.

Several other riders were involved in the crash, Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) came down but was able to get back up and re-join the race. Movistar domestique José Joaquín Rojas was not so lucky, and joins the list of abandons along with Porte.

The list of riders crashing out included most of the GC favorites, with Bardet, Landa and Uran losing the most time.

Richie Porte said before the Tour de France that his hopes of dethroning Chris Froome rested on not having any more bad luck — such as the fall that knocked him out of last year's race.

BMC sports director Fabio Baldato said Porte appeared to break his collarbone. "The shoulder went out and in. It was really painful," Baldato said. "He went down hard with the shoulder."

Porte had entered the day in 10th place at 57 seconds behind the leader, BMC teammate Greg Van Avermaet.

He was also nine seconds ahead of Froome with the race heading south to the Alps and Pyrenees mountains where the Australian could exploit his climbing skills.

To make matters worse for his team, its best option to take over from Porte as leader had a horrendous day on the cobbles. American Tejay van Garderen was one of several riders to fall and had mechanical trouble during the extremely tough course. He managed to keep going, but plummeted in the overall standings from third place at nine seconds back to 30th at more than six minutes behind.

"It was just a bad-luck day. In the first 5K we lose Richie, today I had three flats and crash," Van Garderen said. "It's a big hit for Richie and for the (team's title hopes) obviously."

BMC Change Tactics

Van Avermaet expertly navigated the cobbles, finishing second behind stage winner John Degenkolb, to increase his lead over Froome's Sky teammate Geraint Thomas in the overall standing to 43 seconds. But Van Avermaet, the Olympic road race champion, is not a good climber and acknowledged that he has little chance of keeping the yellow jersey over the next three stages in the Alps.

"We know when we start the race that (overall lead) guys have problems on this kind of stage," Van Avermaet said. "I tried to give them confidence but it is hard. It is a big disappointment for the team that we lost Richie as soon as the race started."

Baldato said that with Porte out, and Van Garderen far behind, the team's only realistic goal is to try to get a stage win on the few remaining flat stages.

"We try to look for the end of the Tour to have some stages and enjoy the fun because of course the (title) and the podium is gone," he said.

Team Sky Send their Well Wishes

The “full gas” day also saw Sky’s leader Chris Froome and Mikel Landa (Movistar) fall, although both recovered to finish close to their rivals.

“It was just a series of sprints into every cobble sector, and hard all day from kilometre zero. It was three and a half hours full gas,” Thomas said. “And everyone was there in the end, apart from Richie. It was sad to hear he crashed out. He’s a good mate of mine. It’s never nice to hear that.”

“It was a stressful day for everyone, I was grateful we got through without any major issues,” Froome added. “I had a little bit of a tumble but was grateful to get back and finish with the rest of the GC guys. I think most of the GC guys are there. Obviously Richie was the most significant GC guy, and it’s never nice to see a mate go down like that, so thoughts go out to him today.

“I don’t know how badly injured he is, I hope it’s not serous but its always sad to hear that one of the main rivals is out of the race.”