(UTV|COLOMBO) – John Degenkolb won a dramatic ninth stage of the Tour de France that saw Richie Porte abandon and Greg van Avermaet extend his overall lead in a chaotic race across the cobbles.
Four-time winner Chris Froome crashed but recovered to finish with the other main general classification contenders.
Porte was forced out of the race with a fractured collar bone after crashing before the cobbles arrived.
Trek Segafredo’s Degenkolb outsprinted Van Avermaet and Yves Lampaert to win.
That trio broke clear with 20km to go and, although Van Avermaet had to settle for second, the Belgian now leads Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas by 43-seconds in the yellow jersey.
Degenkolb was forced to lead out the sprint but the German had enough power to hold off Van Avemaet and Lampaert and claim his first Tour stage victory.
The 156.5km stage across the north of France contained 15 cobbled sections, with Froome tumbling over his handlebars after hitting team-mate Gianni Moscon, who fell on the entrance to the eighth sector.
However, with 45km to go at that point, the Team Sky leader had enough time to rejoin the main group and is now up to eighth overall, while fellow Briton Adam Yates, riding for Mitchelton-Scott, is ninth. They are both one minute and 42 seconds behind BMC Racing’s Van Avermaet.
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