Team Sky rider went down twice, the second more seriousTreacherous conditions as competitors tackle cobbled stage

Chris Froome is out of the Tour de France after injuring his left wrist again during a crash on the fifth stage between Ypres and Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.

With just over 70km remaining Froome – who had already crashed earlier in the day – went over again and after consulting Team Sky doctors and shaking his wrist decided to get in the team car.

On stage four on Tuesday, Froome’s problems arrived almost instantly in a crash that sliced the skin off his left thigh and weakened his left wrist. On stage five they began after 30 minutes when he crashed again and television pictures showed him with severe grazing to the right thigh and a cut knee. That put him 1min 10sec behind but he was able to recover back to the peloton.

Froome battles through the rain after his first crash on stage five. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Just as he had got back into the flow of the race and had been dragged up to the front by his team-mates he crashed again. This time he appeared badly hurt and after attempting to get back on his bike, he engaged in an urgent conversation with the team doctor Alan Farrell and sports director Nicolas Portal as the rain continued to hurtle down and then got into Sky’s team car.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Froome calls time after his second crash. Photograph: Laurent Cipriani/AP

His team then tweeted: “Team Sky rider and defending champion Chris Froome out of Tour de France after a crash on the fifth stage.”

Ironically, the crashes happened before the racers had reached the cobbled roads which help comprise the Paris-Roubaix classic, the so-called “Hell of the North”, which come around 80km in.

Froome’s hopes had initially been boosted when the organisers removed two of the nine sections of pavé on the stage which would have afforded the British rider’s heavily strapped wrist a little relief. “Due to bad weather and road conditions, two cobbled sectors have been removed from stage five,” a statement on letour.com read.

But even before the cobbles, the day was full of crashes. Sébastien Minard skidded near a roundabout and lost his bike under him. Marcel Kittel did the same round a corner, breaking his cleats. With 70km to go, as the peloton split as it swept around a giant roundabout there were crashes on both sides of the road, including two main race contenders Alejandro Valverde and Tejay van Garderen.

Eventually it was Froome who became the main casualty. And after another crash, before the feared cobbles, he decided enough was enough. His Tour de France was over.

Before the stage had begun, the Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford had announced that Richie Porte would be a protected rider, like Froome, as an insurance policy against Froome pulling out. The decision again highlighted Brailsford’s call to omit Sir Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 winner, from Team Sky’s squad. Wiggins was ninth in Paris-Roubaix in April and won May’s Tour of California but was not selected.

Froome joins Mark Cavendish in exiting the Tour after the Manxman’s crash on stage one from Leeds to Harrogate. Cavendish had shoulder surgery on Wednesday, which rules him out of the Commonwealth Games.

Sky’s Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates of Orica-GreenEdge are the remaining Britons.