It has been a tough build up to the Tour De France for Team Sky and Chris Froome and things went from bad to worse during the first stage of the world's most famous bike race.
The four time winner of the yellow jersey was hoping for a quiet start to his Tour but it wasn't to be as he took a tumble on the run-in, and ended up losing a considerable chunk of time to the majority of of his general classification rivals.
Froome was squeezed out of the road and ended up on his backside in a field with around 6km to go to the end of the stage.
Thankfully for his fans, Froome was able to escape unhurt from the incident but he was unable to tag back on to the peleton and ended up finishing the stage 51 seconds behind the main pack.
Fernando Gaviria of Quick-Step Floors sprinted to victory to claim the yellow jersey heading into stage two with the first week at least set to be a battle for the sprinters.
Any thoughts Chris Froome had of taking it easy through the first six or seven stages have gone out the window though after his fall, with the defending champion now firmly on the back foot. There was bad news for one of his rivals as well with Nairo Quintana picking up a puncture on an eventful start to the Tour with the Movistar rider ending 1'11" behind the leaders as result.
The Tour De France is never straightforward as today proved and it is only the start of three of the best weeks of sport on the calendar.
