Cycling can be a cruel sport – one minute you’re on top of the world and then in a flash you’re in the gutter, quite literally.

Etixx-QuickStep experienced both the highs and lows of professional cycling within seconds of each other on stage six of the Tour de France.

As race leader Tony Martin was lying on the tarmac nursing a broken collarbone, Zdenek Stybar was blasting up the road to victory in Le Havre.

The fine margins on which pain and glory can often rest were highlighted further in the crash by Chris Froome’s fortune at staying upright, while Vincenzo Nibali hit the deck alongside him.

In terms of their GC ambitions, they remain unaffected because the crash happened within the final three kilometres – though the longer-term impact of the incident on Nibali will have to be seen.

In the short-term, the Italian actually had to apologise for throwing a bidon at him after believing the Kenyan-born Brit had caused the incident.

So what did we learn from a stage which, until that point, had been passing by without incident?