Heading into the final two kilometres, the Sky train was perfectly positioned on the wheel of the Cannondale riders but it all came to nothing for the British team when most of the green-clad riders slid out. As a consequence, both lead sprinter Ben Swift and Chris Sutton hit the deck but luckily both are ready to go again tomorrow.

Team Sky’s chances of contesting the sprint on stage four of the Giro d’Italia were thwarted by the slippery roads in Bari before Nacer Bouhanni emerged to take a somewhat strange win.

Bernhard Eisel, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Chris Sutton were perfectly positioned to lead out Ben Swift as the action neared its conclusion, but their plans were derailed in the last two kilometres as both Swift and Sutton were sent crashing out on successive slick corners.

Indeed, only three riders survived to battle it out for victory, with Bouhanni producing a fine late kick to outpace Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) and Tom Veelers (Giant-Shimano).

Veelers had been intending to lead out Luka Mezgec in the finale, but the Slovenian suffered a mechanical on the closing straight which meant his team-mate had to sprint far further than he'd originally intended.

Veelers faded fast as the finish line approached but Bouhanni picked his moment to attack and both he and Nizzolo rounded the Dutchman before the FDJ rider took his win by half a bike length. Eisel meanwhile, was the first Team Sky rider home in 30th position.

After the stage, Sports Director Dario Cioni admitted it had been a pretty surreal day for everyone involved, but was pleased to report none of his riders had been badly affected by their late tumbles.

"The roads were like ice out there but fortunately all our riders were OK," he told TeamSky.com. "CJ and Swifty have a few scrapes but nothing serious at all and they'll be good to go again tomorrow.

"At one point it looked liked the course might dry out but it started raining again on the last two laps and you could see the effect it had, riders were scattered everywhere as soon as the pace went up. You could even feel it in the car going around the corners, so it must have been a lot worse on a bike.

"Hopefully that'll be it for rain now. Stage five is going to be a tough one to predict, but we do that last climb twice so we'll have a good look at it on the first lap before we make a call on how we ride it at the finish."