John Degenkolb was going into today's stage of the Tour de France as one of the big favourites but after hitting the deck twice, he ended the stage over 18 minutes later than winner Lars Boom. The German has been diagnosed with a rupture on his gluteus maximums and will be in pain in the next stages.

Stage five was previewed to be one of the tough stages of the first week but it proved crucial for the overall contenders as many lost time while others sadly crashed out all together. A mixture of rain, cobbles and a very nervous peloton caused chaos across the stage and saw the peloton decimate along the 155km route from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.

Team Giant-Shimano went into the stage with a view to protect second place finisher at Paris-Roubaix, John Degenkolb but the treacherous weather conditions, wet cobbles and crashes put an end to his chances of a stage win.

Tom Dumoulin was the highest finisher on the stage in 23rd place, finishing 2’28″ down on the stage winner, Lars Boom (Belkin).

In the build up to the stage there was already changes going on as cobbled sections five and seven were removed from the race as they were deemed too dangerous for the riders to cross.

When the peloton did hit the first section the carnage continued and Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb were the first from the team to hit the deck. Degenkolb came off worse and although he was OK to continue the fall put an end to his chances of fighting for the stage.

Kittel was OK to get back into the bunch and finish the stage safely after a bike change to get him back on his way.

Tom Dumoulin, Tom Veelers, Koen De Kort and Dries Devenyns were still with the front group over the first few sections but they could not follow as the race continued to split to pieces.

Dumoulin was the last one left, eventually finishing in the second group over two minutes in arrears. Dumoulin now moves up to 16th overall.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Marc Reef said after the stage: “Today was always going to be a tough stage and the weather made it really difficult for everyone out there today as we all saw. The plan was to focus around John and get him into position before the first cobbled section but he got caught up in a crash, with Marcel coming down as well.

“They were OK to get back into the group but then John crashed again harder and that put an end to his chances. From here on it was a fight to finish the stage safely.

“Tom D did a strong job to stay in the front for as long as possible. Behind John was OK to finish in the grupetto but he came down hard on his hip and is now having checks with the team’s medical experts on this.”

Team Giant-Shimano’s medical experts have confirmed a small rupture in the gluteus maximus for John Degenkolb.

Following some scans, Team Giant-Shimano’s Physician at Le Tour, Nando Liem said: “John has a small muscle rupture in his gluteus maximus but there is nothing broken thankfully. It will however mean that John will be in some pain this week but he’s a strong rider and will hopefully recover well in the coming days.”

Kittel added from the team bus: “It was rough out there today. I crashed once – it was so slippery and I just slipped away, there was little I could do.

“I had to change bike but was OK. However when I got back into position John came down hard and that was race over for him. We finished together in what was left of the peloton, saving what we could.”