Tuesday 26 March 2019 17:47, UK
Chris Froome suffered a bruising day in the Volta a Catalunya as he was caught in a crash on stage two.
The four-time Tour de France winner hit the deck inside the last 40km of the 166.7km stage from Mataro to Sant Feliu De Guixols.
Though the Team Sky rider was quickly back on his bike, Froome rode on sporting some nasty road rash and bleeding from his right elbow, and did not attempt to chase back to the main group.
Instead, he finished in a group some 14 minutes behind Australian stage winner Michael Matthews of Team Sunweb.
Froome is competing in his first World Tour race of the season, but was here to support team-mate and Paris-Nice winner Egan Bernal in the general classification while getting some miles in his legs after a slow start to the year.
Lotto-Soudal's Thomas De Gendt retained the race leader's white and green jersey following his breakaway victory on stage one, with his lead standing at two minutes 47 seconds over world champion Alejandro Valverde, with Bernal in seventh place a further 10 seconds down.
British quarter Simon and Adam Yates, Hugh Carthy and James Knox, as well as Irishman Dan Martin, are all two minutes and 58 seconds off the lead.
