 Wiggins ripped his shirt in the crash |
Bradley Wiggins fell further off the pace in the Giro d'Italia after suffering in a crash on stage three. Wiggins, who lost the leader's jersey on Sunday, lost almost four minutes when he crashed 10km from the finish. Belgian Wouter Weylandt won the stage, with Sheffield 21-year-old Adam Blythe fifth, riding in his first Grand Tour. Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov took the pink jersey from Cadel Evans, who was delayed by the crash, with David Millar third overall, one second back. The 209km flat stage, from Amsterdam to in Middelburg, was the third and final day for the race in the Netherlands before the event moves to Italy. Millar will be in with a chance of taking the overall lead, with the help of his Garmin-Transitions team, in the 32.5km team time trial, which starts in Savigliano on Wednesday, after the rest day. Wiggins was one of four Sky riders to suffer in a crash that left him with a ripped shirt. American Christian Vandevelde also crashed and was forced to abandon, clutching his shoulder in agony. After losing 3 min 59 sec on the stage, Wiggins is now 55th overall, 4 min 28 sec behind Astana's Vinokourov. The Kazakhstani rider is back to his best form after serving a two-year doping ban. "I wasn't going for the pink jersey ... but I am happy Evans has lost it," Vinokourov said. Weylandt was a surprise winner after out-foxing the lead-out train of HTC-Columbia and their sprinter Andre Greipel on a difficult final kilometre. And there was another surprise in Blythe, who held his own in a 26-strong lead group. Blythe, a product of British Cycling's Olympic development programme, is in his first professional season with the Omega Pharma-Lotto team.
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