Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh checking his collarbone after the stage 3 crash
A crash inside the final 20km of the Tour of California's stage 3 ended Peter Kennaugh's ambitions for the stage and race with the Team Sky rider suffering a broken left collarbone. Kennaugh, who won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race along with a stage and finished in second place at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour earlier this season, was rebuilding his form in California for the second half of the season.
Kennaugh, 26, had planned on heading to the Tour de Suisse and an altitude camp following the 2.HC American stage race but is likely to now miss four weeks of racing with his broken collarbone.
"We were looking all good until Pete crashed. When he crashed the guys waited for him and pretty quickly we saw he couldn't carry on," sport director Gabriel Rasch said of the fall that also involved Direct Energie's Bryan Coquard. "But by then it was almost too late so the guys just went in the grupetto from there. The crash came at the worst possible time, just before the final climb."
Lars Petter Nordhaug was the best finisher for Team Sky, crossing the line in 27th place, 4:14 minutes down on stage winner Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx - QuickStep).
Following the conclusion of the queen stage, Rasch added that he believes Team Sky can still make its mark on the race despite the withdrawal of Kennaugh.
"We still have some good chances this week, with Danny [van Poppel] in the sprints and we will see how Lars Petter [Nordhaug] is. There are a couple of stages with some pretty hard finals so we will see how he goes there," Rasch explained.
