8 May 2012

Crash causes drama on third stage of Giro d'Italia

7:39 am on 8 May 2012

The Australian cyclist Matthew Goss has won the sprint finish to the third stage of the Giro d'Italia over 190km around Horsens with Juan Jose Haedo in second ahead of Tyler Farrar.

But it was just behind them that the major drama took place, with Italian Roberto Ferrari veering wildly to his right and cutting across British world champion Mark Cavendish's line.

Cavendish and American overall leader Taylor Phinney both went down in the crash a couple of hundred metres from the line.

Cavendish managed to get up and walk over the line, but Phinney stayed down for a long time and seemed to have an ankle problem before he too crossed the line to hold on to the leader's jersey.

Race rules deem that if a rider goes down in a group crash in the final three kilometres, he is given the same time as the peloton.

However, it remains to be seen if Phinney will be able to continue on Thursday when the race restarts in Italy following Wednesday's rest day.