Team Sky suffered another setback at the Giro d’Italia following a late crash on the run into Jesolo on stage 13.

Both Richie Porte and Leopold König were brought down in a pile-up with 3.3 kilometres to go on a day that turned the general classification on its head.

With riders and bikes strewn across the wet road, Porte was forced to grab a bike from team-mate Vasil Kiryienka and ride to the finish, dropping two minutes and seven seconds to the lead peloton. König crossed the line just seven seconds in front of his team-mate, also falling out of the top 10 overall.

Race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was another to hit the deck and was forced to relinquish the maglia rosa on what had looked, on paper, like a straightforward sprint stage.

As further bad luck hit Porte the Tasmanian now sits 17th overall, 5:05 back on new race leader Fabio Aru (Astana). König now occupies 15th, 4:24 adrift.

On home ground Elia Viviani took third in the sprint and moved back into the red jersey. The Italian surfed the wheels on the run-in but was just bested by Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) at the line.

“What’s happened? There was a crash,” Porte told journalists at the finish. “It’s just how it is today. It’s wet and nervous. It wasn’t really a big surprise there was a crash to be honest.”

“The red jersey is the big focus after my stage win,” Viviani told Eurosport after the stage. “Richie lost more time today after the crash and it’s certainly not a lucky Giro d’Italia for him. Tomorrow we have a big time trial and then after the Madonna di Campiglio stage he can decide what he wants to do for the rest of the race.

“We knew it was dangerous today with the rain and we had a lot of guys to support Richie. But there was another crash and it’s just not a lucky race for us.”

Sports Director Dario Cioni added: "The guys were well-positioned in the peloton when the crash happened. There wasn’t much that we could do.

"Let’s see how it goes tomorrow with the time trial. It’s a huge test and after the outcome of that we’ll see where we are and make a plan.

“We’ll see if we’re still going for the general classification. First of all we’ll try to win the time trial and then we’ll decide. There’s the time trial tomorrow and we always said that we’d take stock after the time trial. Clearly, luck hasn’t been on our side and there’s nothing to say about the crash today. We were well-positioned but it seems some people were intent on taking on risks.”