Defending champion Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) crashed in yesterday's third stage of the Giro del Trentino and had to abandon the race. Medical examinations have revealed that he suffers from two broken ribs and he will now have to cancel his scheduled participation in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege while his presence on the start line of the Giro d'Italia should not be in danger.

Domenico Pozzovico seemed to be on his way to another good result in the Giro del Trentino while also showing promising signs ahead of his major objective in the Giro d'Italia. In the first summit finish of the race on Wednesday, the tiny Italian took 5th and only had to let Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) go inside the final kilometer of the stage.

Disaster struck in the opening part of yesterday's intermediate stage as the Italian was involved in a crash. Unable to continue, he was transported to a nearby hospital where he was diagnosed with undisplaced fractures of the 6th and 7th ribs. He also has an injury in the right elbow that required some stitches.

The injury comes at the worst possible moment for the Italian as his main season objective, the Giro d'Italia, starts in only two weeks time. The team insists that he will be on the start line in Naples on May 4 but there is no doubt that the injury will severely disrupt his preparations.

Meanwhile, he will have to forfeit his participation in Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege. As part of a ProTeam for the first time in his career, the Italian finally had the chance to line up in the hilly classic but he will now have to postpone his debut until next year.

The team has not named a replacement yet. The remainder of the line-up consists of John Gadret, Rinaldo Nocentini, Carlos Betancur, Romain Bardet, Mikael Cherel, Blel Kadri and Matteo Montaguti.

Starting at 14.15, you can follow the final stage of the Giro del Trentino on CyclingQuotes.com/live. Pozzovivo's teammate Maxime Bouet is the race leader and will try to defend his jersey in a very hard summit finish.