LE HAVRE, France >> Tour de France leader Tony Martin had to pull out of the race after breaking his collarbone in a crash that he caused late in Thursday’s sixth stage.

The crash also dragged down defending champion Vincenzo Nibali and fellow Tour contender Nairo Quintana, but they escaped with cuts and bruises.

A spokesman for the Etixx-Quick Step team said Martin, who was not considered a contender for the overall victory as he’s not a strong mountain climber, would not continue in the race. He is the second race leader to pull out in only six days after Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara fractured two vertebrae in his lower back in Monday’s crash-marred third stage.

Martin lost control of his bike with about 900 meters to go of Thursday’s stage. It swerved to the right, clipped another bike and then brought down some eight other riders, including Nibali and Colombian climbing ace Quintana, who both finished the stage. Czech rider Zdenek Stybar rode away amid the chaos to clinch his first Tour stage win.

Unable to hold his handlebar, with his left arm in a sling position, Martin rolled slowly over the line with several teammates alongside him.

With Martin out, British rider Chris Froome, the 2013 Tour champion, moves into the overall lead.

Three significant crashes have marred the race so far. Two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador of Spain and Froome have escaped all of them — although the British rider almost fell when Nibali’s bike swerved into his.

In the confusion, Nibali actually thought Froome was to blame.

Then, after Froome came to Nibali’s Astana team bus to clear things up, the Italian rider performed a swift U-turn and apologized to his Tour rival.

“I was very upset with him. But then, after watching the video I said sorry to him,” Nibali said. “I moved right, (into) Froome, thought it was his fault. Did we clear it all up? Yeah. We are not footballers, we are cyclists.”

With bikes piled up and riders slowing down, Stybar rode ahead while Martin sat up on the side of the road.

When Stybar looked over his shoulder no one was behind him. Slovak Peter Sagan, chasing a fourth straight green jersey as the Tour’s best sprinter, finished in second place, two seconds behind.

“I don’t get it yet that I have won a stage on the Tour,” said the 29-year-old Stygar, a former Cyclo-cross rider who is Martin’s teammate on the Etixx Quick-Step team.

“It’s an amazing feeling, but on the other hand I feel really sorry for Tony,” Stygar said. “It’s the Tour de France; it’s just crazy, crazy. You don’t know what will happen around each corner.”

Quintana had blood dripping from his right arm and elbow as he crossed the line.

“I don’t think it’s very serious,” said Quintana, the 2013 Tour runner-up.

Froome was relieved to come through the melee with just a minor graze to his knee.

Froome leads Contador by 36 seconds; Nibali by 1:38 and Quintana by 1:56.

It’s been a painful Tour so far for many of the riders.

Australian rider Michael Matthews finished Thursday’s ride despite having two broken ribs sustained on the third stage. He is in last place overall.

Early into Thursday’s stage, Eritrean rider Daniel Teklehaimanot, Frenchman Perrig Quemeneur, and Belgian Kenneth Vanbilsen formed an early breakaway group.

Teklehaimanot scored points in the battle for the King of the Mountains jersey, meaning he will wear the famed polka-dot jersey on stage 7.

“It’s huge for African sport,” said Teklehaimanot, the first rider Eritrean to ride in the Tour.

Bruised and tired from five days of heat, ferocious winds — those scary crashes — and lashing rain, the peloton was in no mood to go quickly, rolling at a meager average of 38.4 kilometers (23.6) per hour as the riders passed through the Picardy region of northern France and into Normandy.

Teklehaimanot and Quemeneur were caught with about nine kilometers (5.6 miles) to go, while Van Bilsen held on until 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the line as the peloton accelerated.

Martin, his yellow jersey shining, moved near to the front in order to put teammate Mark Cavendish in a good position to attack.

Moments later, he was sitting against a railing, staring at the wreckage of another crash as the dazed riders looked around for their bikes.

Friday’s seventh stage is another for sprinters. It starts from Livarot in the Normandy region — home to a cheese of the same name — and ends 190.5 kilometers (118 miles) later in Fougeres, nestled in the Brittany region.

AMIENS, France — Andre Greipel won a rain-drenched fifth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish on Wednesday, while fellow German Tony Martin kept the yellow jersey and the main Tour contenders stayed safe as others tumbled around them.

Greipel attacked some 100 meters from the line and held on to beat Slovakian Peter Sagan. British sprinter Mark Cavendish finished third.

The mostly flat stage took the riders over 189.5 kilometers (117.5 miles) from Arras to Amiens in northern France, passing some of the battlefields of World War One.

Riders hoping for a stress-free stage after three days of intense racing were to be disappointed as the rain, which largely stayed away the day before, thundered down and turned the slippery roads of northern France into something of an ice rink.

Greipel clinched his second stage win of the race so far, punching the air in delight before even crossing the line. It was the third win overall in five stages for German riders after Tony Martin’s success in Tuesday’s fourth stage.

The day’s seventh and biggest crash happened at the back of the peloton with 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) to go.

While not as brutal as Monday’s huge crash in stage 3, it was spectacular and took down about 30 riders. Three went off the road to the right, tumbling into crash barriers. Behind them, others fell in a domino effect. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, third on last year’s Tour, was among those to fall in his second crash of the day.

Thankfully, because speeds were not as high as on Monday, most riders were more groggy than hurt as they looked to see where exactly their bike was amid a myriad of spinning pedals and jutting-out handlebars.

Martin, a three-time world time trial champion wearing the leader’s yellow jersey for the first time, ended the day with a lead of 12 seconds over 2013 Tour champion Chris Froome and 25 seconds over American rider Tejay Van Garderen.

With time gaps staying the same, Froome leads two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador by 36 seconds; defending champion Vincenzo Nibali by 1:38 and Colombian rider Nairo Quintana, the 2013 runner-up, by 1:56.

After Frenchman Pierre-Luc Perichon surged ahead in an early solo breakaway, the first crash took down several Cofidis riders, including Nacer Bouhanni, who was taken away in ambulance. Team manager Yvon Sanquer said Bouhanni injured his hips, ribs and a wrist but did not break any bones.

With only 80 kilometers (50 miles) raced, there was a fifth crash with Bryan Coquard falling for a second time. American Tyler Farrar, Pinot and Portuguese rider Tiago Machado also fell. Machado clutched his bleeding right knee before carrying on.

Perichon was caught with about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to go.

After that, the main pack rolled along at a comfortable pace until the peloton split in two as the side winds became stronger.

Wednesday was also a day for remembrance as the peloton rolled past some of the cemeteries commemorating those who fell on the battlefields of World War One.

Before the stage, which passed through the farming regions of Artois and the Somme, Froome and Sky teammate Peter Kennaugh laid a wreath on the Commonwealth Memorial at the Franco-British cemetery in Arras. Australian riders from the Orica-Greenedge team joined the tribute, wearing black armbands at the stage start.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the most ferocious of the two World Wars. There were 60,000 Allied casualties on the first day, mown down by incessant machine-gun fire from the German lines. Hundreds of thousands on each side were killed and wounded as the battle raged from July to November 1916.

Riders also passed the Necropole Nationale de Rancourt, France’s biggest World War I cemetery, and the South African national memorial of Bois Delville a wooded area their soldiers defended from intense German attacks over several days of fighting in 1916.

Stage 6 is another mostly flat stage for sprinters, taking the pack over 191.5 kilometers (119 miles) from Abbeville to Le Havre, France’s biggest commercial port.

HUY, Belgium — Spanish veteran Joaquim Rodriguez won the crash-marred third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, with British rider Chris Froome finishing second to take the race leader’s yellow jersey.

The crash happened with a little under 37 miles remaining, forcing the stage to be neutralized and then stopped altogether shortly after for nearly 20 minutes while organizers allowed those who fell to catch up.

With the race moving from neighboring Netherlands into Belgium, stage three was 99 miles from Antwerp to Huy.

It featured four short and sharp climbs but the crash took place before any of these when Frenchman William Bonnet went down and several riders tumbled around him.

All of the main Tour contenders avoided the crash, unlike Fabian Cancellara, who started the day in the yellow jersey and ended it in agony after being one of some 20 riders who fell.

After taking chunks of time out of his Tour rivals Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana on Sunday’s rain-soaked and wind-battered second stage, Froome did it again as he accelerated in the last climb. He almost caught up Rodriguez, but the Spanish rider held on with Froome closing in on him.

“It’s never too early to take the yellow jersey,” Froome said. “Really happy to come second and put more time on my GC (general classification) contenders. I was in front (of the crash) and just heard it about it on the radio.”

Rodriguez and Froome clocked the same time of 3 hours, 26 minutes, 54 seconds. Frenchman Alexis Vuillermoz was third, four seconds behind them.

Froome, the 2013 Tour champion, leads German rider Tony Martin by just one second and is 13 seconds ahead of American rider Tejay Van Garderen.

The day’s final two climbs 0.8 miles up Cote de Cherave and the famed Mur de Huy featured on this year’s Fleche Wallonne (Walloon Arrow) classic. That prompted Froome to ride the Wallonne this year, where he crashed toward the end.

He had better luck this time, gaining 11 seconds on Nibali and Quintana and 18 seconds on two-time Tour champion Contador.

“I lost quite a lot of time. I said before the stage that stages like this are often difficult,” Contador said. “It was very hard in the end and I was lacking something. Froome is very strong and he’s come here in good form.”

Monday’s heavy crash took its toll.

Cancellara was one of the last to go down, leaping into the air with his bike attached to him, then landing with a thud luckily on the grass and skidding on his side. Escaping with a few cuts and bruises, Cancellara got back on his bike.

But others were not so lucky.

Bonnet was taken off on a stretcher with a brace around his neck. Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin, competing for the best young rider’s white jersey, Australian veteran Simon Gerrans and Russian Dmitry Kozontchuk also withdrew from the race.

During Sunday’s trek along the Dutch coastline, time gaps were made when heavy side winds caused a split in the front of the peloton.

This time, the weather was not to blame.

Bonnet lost control and his bike slid forward and down.

Racing at tremendous speed on the flat, low roads of Belgium, it was impossible for those behind to either slow down or get out of the way, and one after the other they went up, down, or sideways in a bewildering flash of colors, bobbing helmets, spokes and wheels.

The end result was a tangled mess of bikes, spewed in all directions on the side of the road, while some riders lay on their backs in the grass and others were curled up in agony on the hot tarmac.

As the pack up ahead slowed down waiting stretched out in a narrow street riders started coming back into the race: cuts and bruises decorating their backs and legs. Cancellara grimaced in pain, Australian Michael Matthews looked to be in tears, and it was hard to see which team Johan Van Summeren was riding for given how shredded his shirt was.

The stage re-started for good at the top of the first climb, meaning there were about 31 miles remaining.

But it almost seemed like a training ride in slow motion for about five miles as no rider wanted to speed up.

Finally, the pace stepped up again, and about a dozen riders surged ahead. Doubtless due to fatigue, the others let them go.

Tuesday’s fourth stage stays in Belgium’s Walloon region, starting out from Seraing, and ending in the northern French town of Cambrai 138.6 miles later, making it the longest of the race.

With eight miles of cobblestone sections dotted around the route, it could also prove treacherous.

Given how Sunday and Monday went, riders will hardly be relishing it.

“It’s been an incredible Tour so far and there have been nerves and stress every day,” Contador said. “Tomorrow will be the same.”

SAN BERNARDINO >> Maurice Glover was reading a book while sitting near the back of a Greyhound when the bus started bouncing and passengers flew past him in the aisle.

Another passenger, a man in his 20s, had yanked the steering wheel from the driver, forcing the bus into a ditch on the north side of the 10 Freeway on Saturday afternoon.

“One of the passengers ran into the driver as he was driving and pulled on the wheel, and we careened off the highway,” Glover said.

Twenty-two people were inside the silver and navy bus when it left the freeway just shy of the Waterman Avenue exit about 2:48 p.m., according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Grady Stevens. No one was seriously injured, he said.

The bus crossed into the right shoulder, hopped a small gravel curb, descended a seven-foot hill, crashed through a chain-link fence, dropped another two feet and stopped on the upslope of a dirt hill behind a shopping center.

Passengers kicked open two windows and helped each other off the bus, Glover said.

The man who caused the crash jumped through the broken front windshield and fled, hopping a fence near a Home Depot and an L.A. Fitness.

Law enforcement officers found him a few blocks away, lying down in the parking lot of an Olive Garden, Stevens said. The man’s left forearm had a five-inch laceration, and he suffered other minor wounds, Stevens said. He will be treated at a hospital and arrested, the sergeant said.

Five others on the bus suffered minor injuries, as well, according to Stevens.

One man was bleeding from his face, Glover said, and described an older man as having trouble breathing.

Fuel leaked and Glover saw smoke after the crash.

CHP officers drove the stranded passengers to the Greyhound station in San Bernardino, so they could escape the heat and figure out their next move.

Glover planned on riding the entire route Saturday, from Phoenix to Los Angeles.

He was going to watch Fourth of July fireworks in Laguna Beach.

LA VERNE >> Road rage on the 210 Freeway led to a fistfight and a three-car collision in La Verne on Tuesday, authorities said.

Police received a call of a fistfight at Foothill Boulevard and Wheeler Avenue around 10:20 a.m., police Lt. Thomas Frayeh said.

A couple minutes later, police received a call of a three-car collision at Foothill and White Avenue.

“It appears there may have been a road rage incident on the freeway” that triggered the events, Frayeh said.

The two drivers allegedly exited the freeway at Foothill and got into the fistfight, he said. The second party struck the first driver, then got in the car and drove away, Frayeh said.

The first driver got in his car and then drove through several red lights on Foothill trying to catch up to the second party, before crashing into the back of a car stopped at a red light at Foothill and White. That car then struck another vehicle, resulting in the three-car crash, Frayeh said.

The first driver had injuries consistent with the fistfight and the other two victims complained of pain.

No further information was available.

Three people were injured when a automobile fleeing Ontario police crashed into several cars at a Rancho Cucamonga intersection, police said.

Rancho deputies closed sections of Foothill Boulevard and Hermosa Avenue as the station’s Major Accident Investigation Team responded to the crash site, according to Teresa McMahon, a spokeswoman for the Rancho Cucamonga sheriff’s station.

None of the injuries are life-threatening, according to Ontario police Cpl. Fred Alvarez.

The pursuit started about 3 p.m. near Euclid Avenue and California Street when a traffic officer attempted to pull over a white Ford Mustang for a traffic code violation, Alvarez said. It was unclear what traffic code the driver allegedly violated.

The man wheeling the Mustang blew through several stops signs and a red light and drove on the wrong side of the road as he headed northeast into Rancho Cucamonga, according to Alvarez.

About six minutes after the pursuit began, the Mustang and five other vehicles — none of which were police cars — were involved in the crash at Foothill and Hermosa.

The man who fled police and two others were transported to hospitals. No information about the driver, other than his gender, was available Wednesday evening.

Police are attempting to determine if the man was impaired because they found drug paraphernalia in the Mustang, Alvarez said.

MEDAN, Indonesia >> The death toll from the crash of an air force transport plane in Indonesia jumped to more than 140 on Wednesday, as officials confirmed a bigger-than-previously-reported passenger list and a growing number of victims from the neighborhood where the plane went down.

North Sumatra police major A. Tarigan told TVOne that 141 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a residential area in Medan city where the C-130 Hercules crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday. The death toll was 74 overnight.

The air force says 122 people were on board, including military personnel and their families. Officials don’t expect any survivors from the plane.

Initially, the air force had said only 12 crew were on the plane but had not said how many else were on it. It then repeatedly raised the numbers of passengers, indicating lax controls and raising questions whether it was accepting paying passengers despite previous promises to crack down on the practice. Hitching rides on military planes to reach remote destinations is common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that spans three time zones.

The crash of the aircraft, which had been in service since 1964, occurred only two minutes after it took off from Soewondo air force base in Medan on Sumatra, one of Indonesia’s main islands. It plowed into a building that local media said contained shops and homes.

Witnesses said flames and smoke streamed from the plane before it crashed. Air force chief Air Marshal Agus Supriatna said the pilot told the control tower that he needed to turn back because of engine trouble and that the plane crashed while turning right to return to the airport.

The plane had traveled from the capital, Jakarta, and stopped at two locations before arriving at Medan.

Outside Adam Malik hospital in Medan, coffins were arranged in several rows. Officers wearing face masks and white gloves carried coffins with bodies that had been identified to trucks for transport to families.

A backhoe has been digging at the pile of smoldering concrete where the plane crashed. The tail of the plane still stands in the middle of the neighborhood.

Indonesia has a patchy civil aviation safety record and its cash-strapped air force has suffered a series of accidents. Between 2007 and 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety worries.

The country’s most recent civilian airline disaster was in December, when an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board crashed into the Java Sea en route from Surabaya to Singapore. There have been five fatal crashes involving air force planes since 2008, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation disasters.

___

AP writers Stephen Wright and Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this story from Jakarta.

ALTADENA >> Coroner’s officials on Monday identified the motorcyclist killed in a crash on Angeles Crest Highway as a 27-year-old Jeffrey Yamato of Alta Loma.

Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations and operations for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, said Yamato died at the scene . The autopsy is pending.

The fatal crash occurred just after 8:20 a.m. Sunday at mile marker 36.89 on Angeles Crest Highway.

The motorcycle was heading eastbound when it crossed over into the opposing lane and collided with a 2001 GMC Yukon XL. Bejar said the motorcyclist was thrown from his bike.

The CHP hasn’t determined yet why the motorcycle went into the westbound lane and how fast it was traveling before the crash, but Officer Ryan Bejar said drugs and alcohol were not suspected as factors.

The 40-year-old man driving the Yukon and his passengers — a 42-year-old woman, a 12-year-old boy, a 9-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl — weren’t injured, according to the Bejar. All are from Hanford, in the San Joaquin Valley.

The collision shut down a section of Angeles Crest Highway for nearly three and a half hours.

IndyCar drivers Ryan Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay collided with a little more than a lap to go in Saturday’s MavTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

Both drivers were able walk away from the incident and managed to avoid serious injury.

The race included cars racing four- and five-wide in excess of 210 MPH on the front stretch, leading to an exciting race for fans, but a dangerous one for drives if the cars got too close.

More photos of the wreck and Saturday’s race.