Geraint Thomas' hopes up in smoke while Simon Yates also loses time as Giro d'Italia erupts on Mount Etna

• Full results and details after Jonathan Caceido wins on Etna

• How to watch on TV and follow online with Telegraph Sport

• Full details of teams and remaining riders at the Giro d'Italia

Just three days into the the Giro d'Italia and Geraint Thomas's hopes of adding a pink jersey to his collection are all but over after the Ineos Grenadiers rider crashed in the neutral zone of the 150km stage from Enna to the summit of Mount Etna on Monday.

Having hit a water bottle that had rolled through the peloton ahead of the official start, Thomas had managed to ride most of the stage showing little sign of distress, though once the Welshman reached the decisive climb of the day the effects of the crash soon showed.

After initially dropping to the rear of the peloton, Thomas, assisted by team-mates Filippo Ganna and Ben Swift, soon fell off the back as rival teams applied the pressure in the group containing the key protagonists in the battle for the maglia rosa, the leader's pink jersey.

In a team statement, directeur sportif Matteo Tosatto confirmed what had happened to Thomas who had arrived in Italy in good form. After finishing fourth at the recent world time trial championships Thomas was considered one of the favourites.

"Around one or two kilometres into the neutralised start G [Geraint] got a bidon [water bottle] caught in his front wheel and crashed. Initially he had some pain but as the stage continued he felt better," Tosatto said.

"However towards the end in the final 45 kilometres the pace increased and the climbs got steeper — he had some pain and had to finish the stage at his own pace.

"Now we'll check him over and get a verdict from our medical staff."

After crossing the line over 12 minutes down on stage winner Jonathan Caceido (EF Pro Cycling), it is unlikely Thomas can challenge for the overall should he even make the start line of Tuesday's 140km fourth stage from Catania to Villafranco Tirrena.

Although compatriot Simon Yates did not suffer a fall, the outcome for the Mitchelton-Scott rider, who also started the Giro as one of the favourites, was also bleak. After being dropped around eight kilometres from the summit, Yates plummeted down to 25th overall, 3min 46sec behind new leader Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

A year after compatriot Richard Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian to win a grand tour in Italy, Ecuador national champion Caceido soloed away to his first win in Europe after spending the day in the breakaway.

Caceido crossed the line ahead of Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-KTM) and Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Soudal) to move up to second overall behind Almeida who took the maglia rosa off the shoulders of Ganna.

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02:52 PM

Thomas finishes over 12 minutes down

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who crashed during the neutral zone ahead of today's stage after appearing to hit a rogue water bottle (see below tweet), has completed the stage, but he was over 12 minutes down on stage winner Jonathan Caicedo. Barring a series of miracles — or disasters, depending on your viewpoint — that is the end of the Welshman's general classification challenge at this year's race.

We've been sent footage of Thomas' crash by Scordia CT.

Very unfortunate with the bidon. #Giro pic.twitter.com/q41L679zP2

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) October 5, 2020

Thomas dropped 50 — FIFTY — places on general classification and now trails new race leader Joao Almeida by 11min 17sec.

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02:47 PM

Almeida is the new race leader

Apologies for the delay, my abacus was playing up. Anyway, having looked at the numbers I can confirm that Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step) is the new race leader, while Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) is second on the same time as the Portuguese, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren ) is third. Simon Yates plummeted 17 places on general classification and will start Wednesday fourth stage 3min 46sec behind Almeida, just under three minutes behind Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo).

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02:40 PM

Yates drops down the rankings

Simon Yates crosses the line over four minutes behind stage winner Jonathan Caicedo and around 3mins adrift of Vincenzo Nibali. Intersetingly, his jersey was unzipped despite the horrid conditions. That, to me, would suggest he is suffering with some sort of illness.

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02:37 PM

Vanhoucke completes the podium

Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Soudal) takes third. On clock-watch now for Simon Yates who has lost quite a bit of time here on what has been a chastening day for the British contenders.

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02:35 PM

Visconti is second

Giovanni Visconti rolls over in second place.

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02:34 PM

Caicedo wins stage three at the Giro d'Italia!

Jonathan Caicedo, the Ecuadorian national road and time trial champion, wins a memorable stage atop Mount Etna. A year after Richard Carapaz, the Ecuadorians are very much back.

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02:33 PM

500 metres to go

Jonathan Caicedo is going to win this stage, but will the EF Pro Cycling rider be switching that controversial jersey for a nice pink one? 

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02:32 PM

1km to go

Jonathan Castroviejo is caught by Vincenzo Nibali's group.  Jonathan Caicedo still leas the stage by a minute or so.

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02:31 PM

1.5km to go

Domenico Pozzovivo attacks on the steeper sections of this cruel, cruel climb, but he is unable to drop the remainder of that quintet.

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02:29 PM

2km to go

Vincenzo Nibali was unable to shake off his rivals. Jakob Fuglsang is looking strong, Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT) is there as is Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) while Rafal Majka complete the five-man group of general classification riders.

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02:27 PM

2.3km to go — Nibali attacks

Vincenzo Nibali bares his teeth, but does he have the legs to do any damage?

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02:26 PM

2.5km to go

Simon Yates is around three minutes down on stage leader Jonathan Caicedo and 1min 20sec on Vincenzo Nibali. That is not ideal for the Bury rider, but it is not the end of the world.

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02:25 PM

3.5km to go

Jonathan Caicedo leads the stage,  Giovanni Visconti trails just ahead of  Jonathan Castroviejo who has  Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal) for company. Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) has flown off the front of the pleoton, the Dutchman looking strong. It is raining up near the summit here and fairly windy. Possibly a headwind near the finish line.

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02:22 PM

4km to go

Jonathan Caicedo is the lone leader in this stage. He started the stage 1min 35sec down on general classification, can he ride into pink here?

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02:20 PM

45km to go

While his Ineos Grenadiers team-mates labour down the road, the Basque rider Jonathan Castroviejo has rolled off the front off in pursuit of Jonathan Caicedo and Giovanni Visconti. A little way back the attacks are starting to flow. Think it is safe to say that the Giro d'Italia has exploded today on the slopes of Mount Etna.

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02:16 PM

6.5km to go — Yates is shipping time

Simon Yates is 50secs behind the main group containing Vincenzo Nibali et al. The pair on the front lead Nibali by 1min 28sec.

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02:15 PM

7.5km to go

Stage leaders Jonathan Caicedo and Giovanni Visconti are holding on, their advantage is 1min 45sec. Geraint Thomas has lost five minutes now so I think we can safely assume his Giro d'Italia challenge is dead in the water. The team cars have now overtaken Simon Yates which would suggest the gap between himself and the main group of contenders is reasonably large. 

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02:10 PM

9km to go — Simon Yates is dropped!

Tao Geoghegan Hart is out of his saddle, following in the wheel of Matteo Fabbro as the 25-year-old Italian puts in an injection in pace. Further down the line, Simon Yates has been dropped along with Tony Gallopin (Ag2r-La Mondiale). Good grief, what is happening today?

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02:07 PM

10km to go

Matteo Fabbro leads the peloton, Tao Geoghegan Hart on his wheel just ahead of British national road champion Ben Swift. Movistar, Trek-Segafredo and Jumbo-Visma are all at the pointy end too, as is Simon Yates.

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02:04 PM

11.5km to go

Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe) rolled off the front of the peloton for a minute or so before the young Italia sat up. Back up the road and Jonathan Caicedo and Giovanni Viscontin are working well together. Caicedo, by  the way, is the Ecuadorian national road and time trial champion.

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02:00 PM

Wiggins: 'Clearly this is the end of Geraint's Giro'

Sir Bradley Wiggins, a former team-mate of Geraint Thomas, has just been speaking on Europsport saying that he expected that this is the end of Thomas's challenge.

"We spoke about how much of a favourite he is for this race. It just shows you how fragile the Giro d’Italia can be. It’s day three and we’ve seen him struggling quite a bit. He’s got Filippo Ganna and Ben Swift with him but the effort those guys are making is disproportionate to what G [Geraint] is making.

"The way his jersey is ripped: it’s clearly more than physical. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s broken a rib or something like that. He’ll ride through anything, he’ll ride through pain. It’s clearly the end of his Giro, it’s very abnormal. It’s quite hard to watch. We expected a lot of him this race and it just shows you how delicate it is and it’s never a done deal. Geraint Thomas – it looks like his Giro d’Italia is over.”

Moments after the brief interview, Thomas is seen dropping back for a talk to his team car. Jonathan Caicedo and Giovanni Visconti's lead on the peloton has dropped to 2min 16sec, while Thomas is another 2min 10sec down the road.

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01:58 PM

13.5km to go

The breakaway is in tatters, Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) and Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-KTM) remian the sole leaders. All change on the front of the peloton now, with Bora-Hansgrohe now taking things up, hoping to put their climber Rafal Majka in a position to challenge for the stage and gain some valuable seconds.

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01:56 PM

14km to go

Geraint Thomas has team-mates Rohan Dennis, Salvatore Puccio and Filippo Ganna for company, but his face is a picture of pain as he battles up this climb. Presumably if Thomas  cannot get back on today or, indeed, continue the race then Tao Geoghegan Hart will become the team leader?

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01:50 PM

16.5km to go

Trek-Segafredo now lead the peloton, Astana and Jakob Fuglsang are sat off the left-hand shoulder of Vincenzo Nibali's boys. Jumbo-Visma are there, as are Deceuninck-Quick Step. Mitchelton-Scott have dropped further back.

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01:45 PM

18km to go

There are mixed reports coming in, some are saying he crashed a second time and landed on a hip, others are denying them. Either way, the Welshman is labouring away around 30sec off the back of the pleoton who are about to hit the bottom of the decisive climb.

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01:43 PM

20km to go — Thomas crashes again (maybe)

More reports are coming in from Italy saying that Geraint Thomas has crashed once again He is currently trailing the peloton, but with a number of the key protagonists sat on the front he will struggle to challenge here today.

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01:37 PM

27km to go — Disaster for Thomas

Ben Swift has ridden up the road, leaving Filippo Ganna to shepherd Geraint Thomas up this long and painful drag up to the summit of Mount Etna. Further up the road, the Sicilian Vincenzo Nibali has a posse of Trek-Segafredo  riders hammering it. Is the Shark of Messina going to bite back today?

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01:33 PM

28km to go — Thomas at the back!

Geraint Thomas has dropped to the rear of the peloton. He has Ben Swift and Filippo Ganna for company. The pre-race favourite appears to be in pain and he has been dropped. This could be his Giro d'Italia going up in smoke on the lower slopes of Mount Etna.  

Guess those reports saying Thomas was 'okay' were a little off the mark. 

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01:26 PM

32km to go

Deceuninck-Quick Step have a couple of riders at the head of the peloton, riding today for Portuguese Joao Almeida who started the day in second place overall, one second ahead of Geraint Thomas.  Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) just threw a mini-hissy fit. It looked like he was unhappy with his team-mates who appeared unable to hold his wheel. 

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01:22 PM

34km to go

For the second day running, a dog has wandered into the middle of the road. While the peloton slowed to avoid hitting the dog, Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) made to most of the situation and rolled off the front. Not entirely sure what he expects to do here, but we will soon find out.

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01:19 PM

35km to go

A depleted Astana team — they have already lost Miguel Ángel López and Aleksandr Vlasov — have a few riders near the head of the peloton, maglia rosa Filippo Ganna is sat dead centre riding hard on behalf of Ineos Grenadiers. Trek-Segafredo are there for Vincenzo Nibali and Bora-Hansgrohe also have numbers, presumably riding today for Rafal Majka. As the road ramps up, riders are getting spat out of the back.

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01:11 PM

40km to go

Josip Rumac (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) has just opened his account in the points classification, taking the lion's share at the intermediate sprint in Zafferana Etnea. Although there is just one categorised climb today, the 18.8km long drag up Etna at an average gradient of 6.6%, there are a series of tricky and testing little digs that will start to bite.

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01:04 PM

45km to go

Yukiya Arashiro (Bahrain-McLaren) and Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) were just spotted standing at the roadside, not too sure whether that was a result of a crash or separate mechanical issues. 

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12:59 PM

50km to go

There have been a few spots of rain out on the roads in Siciliy, but as yet the heaven's have not opened, Given the state of the roads that is a blessing. As anybody that has been to southern Italy can attest, the roads are not the best in the world. Television pictures just showed some worryingly large craters on a left-hand corner. If a pint-sized climber like Domenico Pozzovivo went into one of these, we may never see them again. The break's lead is holding at five-minutes.

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12:48 PM

57.5km to go

The breakaway has increased its lead on the peloton to 5min 25sec, but Mitchelton-Scott appear to have the bit between their teeth. Surely they are hoping to put their general classification contender Simon Yates in a position to challenge for the stage win today? Remember, the Bury-born rider will also be hoping to start nibbling away into advantage Geraint Thomas currently holds over him.  

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12:36 PM

65km to go

Interesting to see Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) positioned in the centre of the pack, just off the right shoulder of the Mitchelton-Scott boys who continue to control things in the peloton. Presumably he is working on behalf of Carl Fredrik Hagen today. The Norwegian climber who will join Israel Start-up Nation next year, by the way, made his grand tour debut at last year's Vuelta a España aged 27, he is 29 now.

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12:29 PM

67km to go

Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates) appears to have snapped his chain, while Matteo Spreafico (Vini Zabu-KTM) and Patrick Gamper (Bora-Hansgrohe) have also had mechanical issues. The breakaway is nearing the feedzone.

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12:26 PM

70km to go

Decent sized crowds out today as the peloton weaves its through a piazza. The breakaway riders are working well together, holding on as they edge closer and closer to Mount Etna.

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12:18 PM

75km to go

Just spotted Geraint Thomas a few minutes ago. If you look closely you can see that he has ripped his jersey and, possibly, the left leg of his shorts. There didn't appear to be any cuts or grazes down the left leg.  

 Not a great deal happening right now, the breakaway is holding its lead just below the five-minute mark.

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12:04 PM

85km to go

Mitchelton-Scott continue to ride on the front, Ineos Grenadiers tucked in behind them happy to allow them to do most of the work. At least for the moment. Mount Etna is shrouded in cloud. At least I hope it is cloud, and the volcano is not rumbling away ahead of today's expected hostilities.  The breakaway's lead dropped a few minutes ago, but it has pulled out again to almost five minutes. 

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12:00 PM

Contador: 'Today is the first real test for the favourites'

Alberto Contador, who won on Etna when the Giro visited here in 2011 — yes, he was later stripped of that after the whole steak debacle — has been speaking on Eurosport. The Spaniard reckons after today we should know who has packed their legs for the Giro, and who left them at home.

"This will be the first real test in the mountains for the favourites. We’ve seen some of these riders who have already lost time but we’ll see if this was due to the time trial or if they’re not in good shape.

"There’s likely to be a breakaway but I think Ineos Grenadiers will try and control the race and not let anyone get too far ahead. 18km with 6.6 per cent gradient — it’ll be the key to see who the candidates are to win this Giro and who really doesn’t have the legs to win. The ideal place to attack is the last 4km where the gradient is tougher."

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11:52 AM

92.5km to go

Mitchelton-Scott have assumed control of the peloton today and the Australian squad are setting the tempo in the front of the pack. Their British rider Simon Yates started today eighth on general classification, 26sec adrift of Geraint Thomas. Given that there are another two time trials in this year's Giro and that Thomas is stronger against the clock than Yates, you would assume that Mitchelton-Scott will be aiming to take what they can, when they can, when the road rises up. Incidentally, the last time the Giro went up Mount Etna — in 2018 — Mitchelton-Scott rider Esteban Chaves won the stage, while Yates was second but also took his first maglia rosa.

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11:30 AM

As it stands . . .

Following a nervous start for Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) who crashed in the neutral section of the stage, today's stage got under way at 11.31am (BST). Nobody is 100 per cent sure what happened to the Welshman who is the highest placed of the overall general classification contenders and one of the favourites at this year's race, but according to some reports he is 'okay'.

There was a little bit of toing and froing off the front, before a nine-man breakaway finally formed. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), Victor Campenaerts (NTT), Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling), Lawson Craddock (EF Pro Cycling), Matthew Holmes (Lotto-Soudal), Josip Rumac (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Francesco Romano (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) and Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-KTM) lead the stage by 4min 17sec.

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11:10 AM

Hello

And welcome to our live rolling blog from stage three at the Giro d'Italia, the 150km run from Enna to the first summit finish of the race atop Etna, the volcano that dominates the Sicilian landscape.

Following two days of racing, today should see the general classification riders come to the fore. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) will wear the maglia rosa today, though few are expecting the Italian to keep hold of that pink jersey.

 Equally, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) will almost certainly lose his maglia azzurra — the blue jersey as leader in the mountains classification — once the road ramps up to the top of Mount Etna.

In summary, there will be some big shake ups today when the race for the pink jersey gets under way proper. Racing started a little over half-an-hour ago and our live coverage will get under way at 12.30pm.