Kiwi breaks thumb on Tour de France

Richie Porte sat on the pavement grasping his right shoulder and grimacing in pain. A fan helped Chris Froome get going after he tumbled onto grass lining the road. Romain Bardet recovered from three punctured tyres.

And they were only the highestprofile riders to face mishaps in the action-packed cobblestoned stage nine of the Tour de France yesterday.

Every cyclist who reached the finish was covered in dust – many with their jerseys torn to shreds from crashes. Kiwi Dion Smith was among them. He fractured his thumb and required stitches in his hand after taking a tumble.

Spanish rider Gorka Izaguirre had the unusual experience of his rear wheel buckling to the point that it looked like something out of a scrap heap.

John Degenkolb won a three-man sprint to take victory in a memorable stage, while overall contender Porte crashed out of the race.

Yellow-jersey holder Greg Van Avermaet crossed second and increased his overall lead to 43 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas, a team-mate of Froome’s at Sky. Yves Lampaert, of Quick-Step, finished third.

‘‘It was a pretty hectic day,’’ Van Avermaet said after the dust settled.

Added Thomas: ‘‘It was just hard all day from kilometre zero. You’ve got to be in the right position but you also need the luck because it’s easy to puncture or get caught up in something.’’

Froome, the four-time champion, crossed in the main pack, 27sec behind, overcoming a crash with 45km to go that saw him go over the top of teammate Gianni Moscon.

‘‘I’m relieved to get through today and looking forward to getting into the mountains now where the real race for GC [general classification] will start,’’ Froome said.

Froome moved up to eighth overall, 1min 42sec behind Van Avermaet, who is not a threat in the mountains.

Porte, the leader of Kiwi Patrick Bevin’s BMC Racing, crashed out of the Tour 10km into the 156.5km leg – before any of the 15 cobblestone sections.

BMC sports director Fabio Baldato said Porte appeared to break his collarbone.