Team BikeExchange sports director Gene Bates has been thrown out of the Giro d’Italia after he rear-ended Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Pieter Serry on the final climb of today’s sixth stage of the race.

Team manager Matt White was also fined 2,000 Swiss Francs (£1,570) as a result of the incident, which happened as he retrieved jackets from a race commissaires’ vehicle, that had earlier been handed to them ahead of the final climb.

Following the incident, staff from the Team BikeExchange car rushed to help Serry, who was able to remount his bike and complete the remaining 12 kilometres of the stage to Ascoli Piceno, won by Bahrain Victorious rider Gino Mader.

Groupama-FDJ’s Attila Valter took over the race leader’s maglia rosa – the first Hungarian to wear it, a year after the 2020 edition had been scheduled to start in Budapest before the coronavirus pandemic hit.