Slip, slide, crash: Just another stressful day on Le Tour

Germany’s Marcel Kittel has won the second stage of the Tour de France with a commanding sprint finish, while three-time champion Chris Froome didn’t lose any time despite falling to the pavement amid a mass crash on a wet corner.

Froome’s Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas held on to the leader’s yellow jersey after racing yesterday.

Froome was near the front of the peloton when a Katusha rider ahead of him lost control coming around a sharp turn with about 30km to go. The domino reaction also took down last year’s runnerup, Romain Bardet.

Froome’s shorts and several layers of skin were torn and he had to change bikes as three teammates paced him back to the peloton.

‘‘Obviously it was a stressful day in the rain and with that tumble,’' Thomas said.

‘‘We all knew [Froome] was OK. It was just a matter of getting him back on.’'

Having won the opening time trial, Thomas remained five seconds ahead of Swiss rider Stefan Kueng in the overall standings.

With a 10-second bonus, Kittel moved up to third overall, six seconds behind Thomas. Froome is sixth, 12 seconds behind.

‘‘It was stressful. You kind of forget what the Tour is like,’' Thomas said. ‘‘The weather didn’t help things at all.’'

For the race’s first full road stage following Saturday’s opening time trial (NZT Sunday), Kittel clocked slightly more than 4.5 hours over the mostly flat 203.5km leg from Duesseldorf, Germany to Liege.

It was Kittel’s 10th career Tour stage win.

As he often does after big wins, Kittel dropped to the ground and started crying after he crossed the line.

‘‘I’m super happy, super proud,’' Kittel said, dedicating the victory to the German fans who showed up at the start of the stage.

‘‘It was a very special win for me.’'

Kiwi Jack Bauer helped celebrate the win with his Quick-Step Floors team-mate, having safely negotiated the crashes to finish 95th on the stage.

Also safely in the pack were fellow Kiwis George Bennett and Patrick Bevin, while Dion Smith was 17th after trying to lead out his sprinting team-mates Andrea Pasqualon and Pieter Vanspeybrouck.

Arnaud Demare of France finished second, Andre Greipel of Germany crossed third and Mark Cavendish of Britain was fourth.