The 101st edition of the Tour de France is so far very eventful for debutant Jens Keukeleire, as the young Belgian rode impressively during the rain-soaked cobbled stage yesterday, only 24 hours after he was involved in the first of three accidents which eventually forced last year’s champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) out of the race.

Even though Keukeleire couldn’t be blamed for Froome’s accident as the 25-year old Orica-GreenEDGE rider was forced to fight for staying on his bike by unidentified Belkin rider, the incident still had a huge impact on his mentality and the Belgian apologized to the Team Sky leader as soon as it was possible.

"A rider from Belkin wanted to go through a gap that wasn't there," Keukeleire stated. "He hit me and I was barely able to avoid the wheel ahead of me. Behind me was Froome and he touched my wheel and crashed," Keukeleire described in his Krant van West-Vlaanderen blog.

"Immediately I thought, even though it wasn't my fault, 'Fuck, I took down the winner of last year's Tour de France,' but in the end he seems to come away with some minor scratches."

"He said it wasn't necessary because it wasn't my fault since the Belkin rider was to blame, although he appreciated the gesture."

However, the situation certainly didn’t put Froome in a perfect situation ahead of yesterday’s rightly feared cobbled stage, and while the last year’s Tour de France champion crashed two more times before abandoning the race, Keukeleire easily got over a trauma from the previous day to ride impressively and finish sixth, ahead of the more experienced classics specialists in likes of Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin), Sebastian Langeveld (Garmin-Sharp) or Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).