The British rider began today's stage in seventh place and was already carrying injuries to his hip, shoulder, knee, elbow and wrist after coming off his bike during yesterday's stage.

On today's run from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, the problems for Froome began just 30 minutes in when he crashed again as the riders battled driving rain in northern France.

That fall put him 1 minute and 10 seconds behind the leading pack but helped by his Team Sky team mates he managed to make-up the gap on the peloton.

However, just when it looked like he had recovered and was back to relative comfort in the main pack he went down again with around 70 kilometres remaining and this time it signalled the end of his title defence.

Froome attempted to get back on his bike but appeared badly hurt and after consulting Team Sky doctor Alan Farrell and sports director Nicolas Portas, he was forced to abandon the race.

The 29-year-old's retirement will come as a severe blow to Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford who had controversially omitted 2012 Tour de France champion Sir Bradley Wiggins from this year's race in favour of building his race strategy around Froome.

Chris Froome had been the chosen one by Sir Dave Brailsford ahead of this year's Tour de France ©Getty Images






Following Froome's crash yesterday, Brailsford had announced that Australian Richie Porte would be a protected rider in case his star man succumbed to his injuries and the Aussie will now carry the hopes of the British outfit for the remainder of the Tour.

Froome follows the likes of compatriot Mark Cavendish and 2010 Tour de France winner Andy Schleck of Luxembourg who have already pulled out of this year's race after suffering crashes on stage one and three respectively.

Organisers had announced at the start of today's stage that two of the nine sections of cobble stones had been removed - reducing the stage to 152.5km, 3km less than originally planned -due to the adverse weather conditions that greeted the riders this morning.

Froome was not the only one to struggle with the conditions as a host of riders hit the deck including Germany's Marcel Kittel, winner of two stages already, who skidded near a roundabout and broke his cleets while Sébastien Minard of France came off at the same spot.

Later on at another roundabout Spaniard Alejandro Valverde and Tejay van Garderen of the United States also came off their bikes as the roads continued to be treacherous.

The Ypres to Arenburg Porte du Hinaut stage commemorated 100 years since the start of World War One and featured many of the cobbles used in the Paris-Roubaix one-day race referred to as 'the Hell of the North'.

Dutchman Lars Boom crosses the line during stage five of the Tour de France after a day of driving rain ©Getty Images



With driving rain and flood-strewn muddy roads it was Team Belkin's Lars Boom who eventually managed to tame the difficult conditions by claiming the stage win.

The 28-year-old Dutchman surged clear of a breakaway group 6km out to finish 19 seconds clear of Astana's Jakob Fuglsang of Denmark and Italian teammate Vincenzo Nibali.

Slovakia's Peter Sagan outsprinted Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland to finish fourth leaving the Team Liquigas-Cannondale man sitting third overall in the general classification.

Nibali retained the leader's yellow jersey and is two seconds clear of Fuglsang while Team Sky's new main man Porte sits in eighth place overall.

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