Team Giant-Alpecin's current run of bad luck continued on the fifth day of racing at Tirreno-Adriatico as Simon Geschke crashed out of the race, breaking his collarbone in a slow-speed collision with the team car. The stage itself was a 197km mountain stage with the finish line atop the final ascent to Terminillo.

The team’s goal for the stage was to conserve what energy they could and to stay out of trouble in the precarious weather conditions, but in the end it wasn’t to be the weather that caught them out. The stage was punctuated with a tough final climb to the finish and with snow expected at the top it was going to be a tough test.

From early on a group of seven pulled clear to spend the day at the front of the race. With 15km to go the riders still had over 2’20” advantage but as the road started to ramp up their advantage fell and the GC favourites behind came to the fore. By the top of the climb Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was the first rider over the line, while all of the Team Giant-Alpecin riders except Geschke made it home safely within the time limit and safely.

Geschke meanwhile fell earlier in the stage as slow speed when returning to the team car with a mechanical. After assessments at hospital together with team Physician Anko Boelens, Simon’s right collarbone was confirmed as broken and it will be seen as to whether or not surgery is needed.

“Checks here at the hospital have confirmed what we suspected, that Simon has broken his right collarbone,” team Physician Anko Boelens told. “We now need to assess whether or not he will need surgery before he can head home to recover.”

After the race, coach Rudi Kemna told the Giant-Alpecin website:

“It was a real disappointment to lose Simon from the race today – the crash was such a small accident and a small lapse in concentration at about 5km/h.

“Simon came back to the team car with a mechanical and as we were stopping he hit the back of the car, but at a very slow speed.

“Sometimes you come off worse in the small, slow crashes. He felt straight away that it was broken and now that has been confirmed we can start the recover process with him to get back in the best possible way.”

“For the rest of the guys, everyone got round in a normal way, and it was not a target stage for us today with another sprint opportunity ahead tomorrow. The goal was to get through the day safely in what was some pretty harsh weather conditions. We can now concentrate on tomorrow and on the opportunities ahead.”