Bradley Wiggins’ accident-prone and injury-infested 2013 season continued as he crashed on stage 2 in the Tour of Britain as his Sky team-mates took control of the peloton for the second day in succession in an attempt to place Wiggins in a strong position heading into Wednesday’s time trial.

After the stage Sports Director Servais Knaven elaborated on another punishingly tough day and a lucky escape for Wiggins.

“Brad was in the crash after 50km," he confirmed on the Sky website. "(Giovanni) Visconti crashed in front of him and he landed on him. There were a few guys involved but Brad was really lucky – coming down at 60km/h. He is fine which is good news. He was going well at the end and has only lost a couple of seconds there to the lead guys.”

Wiggins trails Monday’s stage winner and new race leader Gerald Ciolek(MTN Qhubeka) by 30 seconds ahead of Tuesday’s 16km time trial.