Froome flies off the road into a ditch in opening Tour stage

FONTENAY-LE-COMTE, France (AP) — Down in a ditch, Chris Froome had to hoist himself and his bike back up to the road.

It was a startling scene when the Team Sky rider tumbled into a grassy field in the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, immediately putting his pursuit of a record-tying fifth title in peril.

Froome, though, is getting used to these sort of mishaps and challenges — whether that means recovering from crashes or clearing his name of doping.

"I saw a lot of crashes out there today. It's just one of those things. We always knew the first few days were going to be tricky and going to be sketchy.