CHRIS Froome sported a couple of bandages at the start of stage two of the Tour de France but insisted he was fine after his opening day tumble.

The Team Sky rider fell a little over five kilometres from Saturday's finish in Fontenay-le-Comte and lost 51 seconds on a number of his rivals in the general classification fight, although Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Richie Porte (BMC) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) also lost time in a chaotic finish.

"I'm good," Froome said. "I was fortunate yesterday when I went down I came straight into a field, it's very different to falling on tarmac which is obviously a lot harder.

"Every year I come into the Tour I know there's a high likelihood of crashing in that first week, there's a lot of jostling for position. I'm sure everyone saw the video footage. That's just the nature of racing in the first week.

"It's never nice to lose time, never good to start on the back foot like that, but there's a lot of racing to come and I wasn't the only one of the main contenders to lose time. I'm going to put yesterday behind me and crack on with the race."

Stage two of the race will take the riders on a 182.5km loop from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon, where a sprint finish is expected.

World champion Peter Sagan won stage two of the Tour de France into La Roche-sur-Yon to take the yellow jersey.

Sagan held off a late charge from Sonny Colbrelli to win from a reduced sprint after a big crash in the final two kilometres held up the peloton.

But there were only a handful of riders left to contest stage honours after a nasty right-hander two kilometres from the finish saw a number of riders hit the deck.

With stage one winner Fernando Gaviria among those held up, Bora-Hansgrohe's Sagan will move into the yellow jersey on bonus seconds after finishing second on Saturday.

Team Sky, who saw Chris Froome lose 51 seconds to most of his main general classification rivals after a stage one fall, successfully dodged the crash, and will not suffer any time losses with the incident coming inside the final three kilometres.

Mark Cavendish's hopes of a 31st Tour stage win were also scuppered by the crash but the Dimension Data rider stayed upright.

The dramatic pile-up capped another nervous finale to the race, with Mitchelton-Scott's Adam Yates among those to fall in the final 35km. The Bury rider, who like Froome lost time thanks to a crash on the opening stage, quickly made his way back to the pack but with his left shoulder scuffed up.

Astana's key man Luis Leon Sanchez was not so lucky, forced to abandon after hitting the deck hard, while Romain Bardet's domestique Sebastian Dillier also fell.

Those incidents came as the speed picked up and the peloton reeled in Sylvain Chavanel, the Direct Energie rider who had been away sole since the 35km marker on the 182.5km stage from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain.

The 39-year-old, competing in a record 18th Tour de France and his 350th stage, enjoyed his day in the spotlight, sitting up to high-five fans in the towns early in the day as the peloton was happy to let him go.

He was finally caught with 13km left, setting up an intense battle for position on the road into La Roche-sur-Yon.

Marcel Kittel, winner of five stages in last year's Tour, saw his hopes of contesting the sprint effectively ended by a flat rear tyre with 7.5km to go, but the bigger incident was still to come.