Tom Dumoulin's Giro hopes in tatters after suffering nasty injuries in Stage 4 crash

The 2017 champion went down in a crash with 6km remaining of an otherwise uneventful stage, although on initial viewing it wasn’t clear to see that the 28-year-old had been involved.

With the race broken up and riders scattered all over the road, TV images soon picked up Dumoulin tentatively riding on after the crash.

It wasn't clear how serious the injuries were on first viewing, but notably Dumoulin’s team did not push to get him to the line, with the Dutchman crossing over four minutes back at a sedate pace – possibly an indication that he had conceded his GC challenge.

The rider was later seen leaving the team bus and getting in an ambulance to assess injuries that looked to be caused by a chainring.

Dumoulin later admitted his GC hopes were finished, and that he would take a decision on whether to continue racing on Wednesday.

"I’m going to sleep on it overnight and then I’ll decide tomorrow," Dumoulin said. "The rankings [GC] are over."

"I was in the front of the bunch and just couldn’t avoid it," he said of the crash. "There are no fractures, which is good, but my knee is very swollen. I wasn’t able to push any power in the last few kilometres so I don’t know how I will be tomorrow."

Speaking in Eurosport’s analysis show The Breakaway, Dumoulin’s Sunweb team-mate Nico Roche debated what the options will be now for the team leader:

Other major GC contenders Primoz Roglic and Simon Yates avoided getting caught up in the crash, although Yates was involved in another incident, one that saw him branded an “idiot” by an irate Mikel Landa.