Badly timed puncture spells disaster for Caleb Ewan who missed out on bunch sprint

Caleb Ewan has had a difficult race so far, as a crash on the opening day had him loose out on a strong result in sight of the line. Positioning prevented him from being in contention on stage three, and today a mistimed mechanical took him out of contention early on in the day.

"I had to change my wheel at the bottom of the climb of Portella Mandrazzi. It was the worst possible timing," Ewan said after the stage. Lotto Soudal had up until that point helped control the stage, with Thomas de Gendt riding long kilometers in the front of the peloton, however luck was not on the Belgian team's side today.

Ewan punctured and needed a wheel chance in the 20-kilometer long ascent to Portella Mandrazzi, which proved to be a crucial moment in the stage as Mark Cavendish was also dropped. The two teams both tried to return to the peloton but to no success, eventually rolling over the finale together in the grupetto.

"The team did what they could to come back, but it was impossible against all the other teams," he added. Alpecin-Fenix pushed the pace in the ascent, whilst Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux and Israel - Premier Tech kept the pace high so as to prevent their rivals from returning to the front of the peloton. Ewan - alongside the entire Lotto Soudal team - rolled over the finish almost 12 minutes down, and eyeing already tomorrow's stage as the Giro arrived at mainland Italy.