Team Jumbo-Visma’s Primoz Roglic added to his lead at the Giro d’Italia as Richard Carapaz won stage four for Movistar.
On what was tipped to be a fairly sedate day, the drama occurred in the final 10km as a series of crashes saw a number of the favourites affected.
Up ahead, Carapaz broke clear to seal the win in Frascati and Roglic was part of the 15-man group that the Ecuadorian headed, following him home to finish sixth on the day.
The Slovenian moved to 35 seconds clear of Mitchelton-Scott’s Simon Yates who was one of those brought down, while 2017 Giro champion Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb lost four minutes as he came down with 7km to go and was seen to be bleeding heavily from his left knee.
After Monday’s controversy, which saw stage winner Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Elia Viviani demoted for changing his line, organisers will have been hoping for a quieter day.
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Speaking afterwards, Yates remained philosophical about the late flurry of incidents and is confident there is still time for his wounds to heal. “Everyone was fighting for position on a roundabout with 6km to go and a rider slid out in front of me,” Mitchelton-Scott rider Yates told Eurosport. “I’m not blaming anyone, these things happen, but I got up quickly and had the guys around me to limit the losses. “My hip is sore, my left hand side is really, but I’m OK – it’s always worse in the morning so we’ll see but the Giro is long.”
