After the ecstasy of winning Stage 6 on Thursday, it was agony for UAE Team Emirates‘ Dan Martin in Saturday’s eighth stage of the Tour de France as the Irishman was involved in a late crash that put him out of contention for another stage win.

Fellow UAE Team Emirates rider Alexander Kristoff finished fourth though, with Dylan Groenewegan (Lotto NL-Jumbo) winning the stage.

Stage 8, a relatively short route in Normandy covering 181km from Dreux to Amiens, was another stage for sprinters, giving Martin the chance to claim another victory until misfortune struck.

“Obviously I’ve felt better. But it could have been a lot worse. It was just a case of wrong place, wrong time,” Martin said, who dropped over a minute and arrived at the finish line with blood streaming from a wound on his elbow.

“There was a break ahead of us, someone moved across and took my front wheel away. I couldn’t do anything about it.

“I know the time loss isn’t the best thing, but the guys did a great job of bringing me back up.

“Thankfully nothing is broken, so now I need to focus on tomorrow’s stage, survive the cobblestones and then we’ll see how things are after the rest day.

“I’ve already won a stage and as I’ve said – anything else is just a bonus.”

Kristoff, meanwhile, was sixth across the line after holding his position at the front of the peloton to be a part of the final sprint.

The Norwegian gained two places though when the second and third-place riders, Andre Greipel of the Lotto Soudal team and Quick-Step Floors’ Fernando Gaviria, were disqualified for elbowing and headbutting in two separate incidents in the finale.