Hardly a day seems to go by in the Giro d’Italia without Bradley Wiggins (Sky) experiencing some sort of unexpected trouble.

Thursday’s 6th stage was no exception. Wiggins was being paced back into the peloton after a mechanical problem inside the final 30 km when an extensive crash ahead of him utterly clogged up the road ahead and caused him to lose valuable time on many of his GC rivals.

However, in the group unaffected by the tumble common sense prevailed and Team Sky were able to rejoin the front as the pace had been sportingly curtailed up the road.

As soon as contact had been made, Team Sky moved straight to the head of affairs to avert any further peril, with Xabier Zandio and Christian Knees both taking significant leads before Wiggins himself led the peloton into the final 3 km.

“Bradley needed a bike change minutes before that crash, so although he wasn’t involved in it, he did get stuck behind it,” Knees explained on the Sky website after the stage.

“The boys did a brilliant job pacing him back on but I got caught up the road. It was so loud in the bunch that I couldn’t hear over the race radio what had happened behind me until it was too late. When I found out I went straight to the front and told the FDJ and Quick-Step guys to stop pulling. They agreed to ease off a little but the pace was still high so the boys had to ride hard to bring Bradley back on. They did a great job and then I moved him towards the front to keep him out of any further trouble. This was the last sprint day for a while, so that’s why it was so hectic, and we knew we had to stay safe at the front. In the end we did that so we’re all happy with how things turned out,” Knees concluded after yet another scare for the British team.