Team Sky endured a very tough day in yesterday's Gent-Wevelgem as the team's race was marred by several crashes. Ian Stannard and Chris Sutton were worst off while Geraint Thomas escaped his incident unscathed and is ready for the bigger classics to come.

Team Sky endured a bruising edition of Gent-Wevelgem after a number of hard crashes derailed the team’s chances.

A incident-filled race saw Ian Stannard and Chris Sutton go down, while Geraint Thomas was taken out of contention late on in another pile-up heading into Wevelgem.

Edvald Boasson Hagen led the team home in 23rd after being forced to chase back on a number of times during the tough 233-kilometre Spring Classic.

The race would be decided in a mass sprint and it was John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) who prevailed. The German took his fifth victory of the season, edging out Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and 2013 victor Peter Sagan (Cannondale).

With the day’s nine climbs completed, a tense run-in had ensued as the trio of Andrey Amador (Movistar), Silvan Dillier (BMC Racing) and Stijn Devolder (Trek Factory Racing) looked to evade the peloton.

All three drove hard into the final kilometres but as the peloton regrouped the gap eroded and the deflated escapees were caught heading under the flamme rouge.

Sports Director Servais Knaven admitted it had been a tough day for the team with a strong foothold falling away amid a crash-strewn race.

“There were a lot of crashes today and our guys got caught up in a few,” he confirmed to TeamSky.com. “We had a lot of bad luck.

“Edvald didn’t go down but he was constantly behind crashes and lost his position in the peloton. He had to chase back and then just as he’d get there there’d be another crash.

“Geraint and Bernie were riding well. G went down heading into the closing stages but luckily he is okay. We ended up with four guys left coming into the final but they got held up behind the next set of crashes. It wasn’t our luckiest day today but hopefully we’ve used up a lot of the bad luck ahead of next week.

“The guys are riding well so we just need to keep our chins up and look ahead to Sunday and Flanders.”

After the race, Doctor Phil Riley was able to shed some light on Team Sky's casualties, but admitted it would take more time for the full extent of the riders' injuries to be known.

He said: "CJ [Sutton] has a nasty flesh wound to his left knee which has been cleaned and dressed and he’s going to fly home to Spain and have it reassessed in a few days’ time.

"Ian has had CT scans which have confirmed a back injury. He will stay in hospital on tonight and will also be reassessed tomorrow before we decide whether or not he has to go home.

"Geraint is fine. Our physiotherapist Nathan Thomas checked him over after the race and G also confirmed that to me over the phone."