Giro d'Italia Updates

NEWS

Giro d'Italia Updates

Bradley Wiggins wore the distinctive and historic maglia rosa on Sunday but unfortunate crashes have since proved costly...

On Saturday, Amsterdam witnessed the greatest day in Team Sky's brief history as star rider Bradley Wiggins claimed the pink journey on the opening day of the Giro d'Italia. Wiggins rode majestically over the challenging 8.4km course to claim his first win in one of the three Grand Tours.

Stages 2 and 3 proved to be more unfortunate for Bradley though as he was mixed up in a series of crashes on more than one occasion and has proved to be critical as he has slipped down to 55^th place. With painfully narrow and winding roads, crashes were inevitable and Bradley's luck was out as he was numerously caught up in major crashes - with one of these resulting in Bradley having to stand and realign his wheels and wait for some to disentangle themselves whilst his rivals could stretch away from him.

Team Sky's sports director Sean Yates was fiercely critical of the twisting, narrow course of the race finale saying that "it's not right to use roads like that... I lost count of how many big crashes I saw". A more philosophical Wiggins reflected"it's disappointing, but that's the way it is in major tours. You have a massive high one day and you're at the bottom of the pack the next."

After flying into Italy and enjoying a rest day in Savigliano, the Stage 4 action saw Bradley and Team Sky place a very respectable second on the relatively short team time trial. The stage provided the first real opportunity for a shake-up in the general classification since the opening day's prologue where we saw Bradley claim the pink jersey and yet again Bradley along with his teammates produced a strong performance once again.

Yesterday's performance saw Bradley move up the general classification and a top ten finish could be a distinct possibility but Wiggins main focus is preparing for the Tour de France, helping out his teammates and to perhaps "challenge for another stage win".

The action continues today in Novara as stage 5 gets underway. Bradley is likely to work for teammate Greg Henderson in the 162km ride from Novara to Novi Ligure as Henderson will be looking to claim victory in the stage where a bunch sprint is the most likely outcome.

Be sure to check our twitter page for updates on Bradley's progress.