World News – GB – Thomas out of the Giro d’Italia protest

Briton Geraint Thomas is no longer in contention for the Giro d’Italia after losing more than 12 minutes on the third stage on Etna

Pilot Ineos Grenadiers, 34, crashed just before departure after a bottle of drink got lodged under his front wheel

Joao Almeida of Deceuninck-Quick Step now wears the leader’s pink jersey, despite being tied with Caicedo

Thomas and Yates were the top two contenders to win this year’s Giro, which promised to be a battle of two fit riders

Instead, it was a miserable day for both of them as rain fell in the dramatic surroundings of Etna’s dried black lava flows

Thomas crashed during the neutralized zone before the start of the mountainous stage to the volcano in Sicily

He seemed to ride comfortably despite very torn gear and land on his hip

But as the stage progressed, Thomas slipped out of the peloton about 25 km from the end of the stage

Ineos even sacrificed the leader’s pink jersey, bringing back race leader Filippo Ganna to try and help Thomas recover

Thomas finished third in the general classification before the stage, 26 seconds ahead of Yates eighth

Shortly after Thomas disappeared, Yates began to fade in the same way, slipping from a fast bunch

Yates had shown good form in the lead-up to the Giro, winning the Tirreno-Adriatico warm-up race last month seconds behind Thomas, who was also recovering his form after being excluded from the Tour de France

With 18 days of racing to go, Thomas is now 11 minutes 17 seconds behind in the overall standings, while Yates is 3 minutes 46 seconds behind

It will be a bitter disappointment for Ineos, who had a terrible Tour campaign by his standards after defending champion Egan Bernal dropped out of the race after losing seven minutes to the leaders of Stage 15 The team had won every Tour from 2015 until last month

Thomas will be assessed by the team’s medical staff and a decision will be made on whether he should continue the race of Tuesday’s 140km sprint stage from Catania to Villafranca Tirrena

Ineos may have chosen to focus his overall standings goals on Tao Geoghegan Hart, who is his best-placed driver with a 3min 19sec lead

« It’s still a long Giro », said Ineos sporting director Matteo Tosatto « We have Filippo and Rohan [Dennis] with good chances in the time trials and we also have [Jonathan] Castro [viejo] and Tao riding well We’ll take stock tonight and review our approach for the rest of the race « 

As rivals felt problems for both drivers, the pace of the peloton picked up, with two-time winner Vincenzo Nibali’s Trek-Segafredo team taking over at the front

Despite a lost Labrador who almost knocked several riders off their bikes before the final 19 kilometers of climb to Etna, many of the remaining team leaders have turned back time

Steven Kruijswijk of Jumbo-Visma, Jakob Fuglsang of Astana, Rafal Majka and Nibali of Bora-Hansgrohe – nicknamed the Shark of Messina – all made up for lost time after a bad time trial on stage one

The Sicilian Nibali, 35, is now one of the favorites 55 seconds behind the leader of General Joao Almeida of Deceunick-QuickStep

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Giro d’Italia, Diego Ulissi, Peter Sagan, UAE Team Emirates, Team INEOS