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Watch: Motorbike brings down Giro GC favourites at the foot of Blockhaus climb

Geraint Thomas, Mikel Landa and Adam Yates see GC hopes damaged by crash

A police motorbike at the Giro d’Italia had a significant impact on Stage 9 of the Italian Grand Tour’s 100th edition. As a result, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Mikel Landa (Team Sky) and Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) saw a wrench thrown into their general classification hopes at the 2017 Giro d’Italia. A police motorbike stopped at the side of the road ahead of the charging peloton at the base of the crucial Blockhaus climb caused a crash.

It appeared to be Wilco Keldermann (Team Sunweb) who was the first rider to go down because of the stationary police moto. Keldermann was unable to dodge the stationary moto. Behind Keldermann, Team Sky were lined up. Amoung the fallen riders were both of Sky’s GC hopefuls in Mikel Landa and Geraint Thomas. Orica-Scott riders were also affected with Adam Yates loosing contact with the front of the race. Yates and Landa were able to get back on their bikes quickly but Thomas was dazed and took longer pick himself up. All three were distanced as Movistar continued to drive the pace into Blockhaus.

The peloton was lined out ahead of the crash as Movistar lead the peloton into the base of the 12 km climb that promised to shake up the general classification.

Yates, Thomas and Landa all fell out of the top-10 of the GC. They had been within 10-seconds of Bob Jungels and tied on time with the likes of Quintana, Pinot, Dumoulin and Nibali.

Stage 10 is a 40-km time trial and will see another shake up in the GC. Monday is a rest day but when the race resumes the GC riders who are strong time trialists will try and take back time lost on Blockhaus.

Updated: Wilco Keldermann has abandoned the race