The Irishman came down in the small pile-up with 17 kilometeres to go, his UAE Emirates team mates Darwin Atapuma and Aussie Rory Sutherland swiftly coming to his aid.
As the peloton hightailed towards the finale, Martin and his men never made it back on, finishing gingerly one minute and 30 seconds behind the pack, the stage 6 winner with visible tears to the back of his jersey.
He is now two minutes and 47 seconds in arrears to the man in the yellow jersey Greg van Avermaet.
“X-rays reported no fractures for Martin," the team doctor confirmed. "He suffered a lumbar trauma and superficial wounds on the lumbar zone, as well as some grazing on his left elbow and back."
Martin joked he's had it much worse, like riding much of last year's race with two fractured vertebrae - finishing sixth overall - after Richie Porte brought him down on stage 9.
“Obviously I’ve felt better. But it could have been a lot worse. It was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. There was a break ahead of us, someone moved across and took my front wheel away. I couldn’t do anything about it.
"I know the time loss isn’t the best thing, but the guys did a great job of bringing me back up. Thankfully nothing is broken."
Martin and his injuries now face a bone-rattling 15 sections and 22 kilometres of cobbles on the Tour's ninth stage.
"Now I need to focus on tomorrow’s stage, survive the cobblestones and then we’ll see how things are after the rest day. I’ve already won a stage and as I’ve said – anything else is just a bonus.”
