Giro d'Italia 2017: Geraint Thomas questions cycling's professionalism after crash

Geraint Thomas has questioned cycling's professionalism after his Giro d'Italia hopes suffered a huge blow in a crash involving a police motorbike.

The Team Sky co-captain was second as the day started, but is now more than five minutes behind the leader, Movistar's Nairo Quintana.

A stationary police motorcyclist caused a crash that brought down riders.

"How can that still happen? The sport is supposed to be professional," Thomas told BBC Radio Wales.

"It's one of the biggest races of the year. Something totally out of riders' control can basically lose you the race, which is devastating, really."

Geraint Thomas was knocked off his bike 15km from the finish in stage nine of the Giro d'Italia

Thomas will undergo a precautionary X-ray during Monday's rest day and told reporters after the race that his shoulder had "popped out" following the crash.

He says the sort of incident that befell him and others in the race on stage nine would not have been tolerated in another sport, such as tennis.

"You'd never see that in Wimbledon, someone just walking up to (Andy Murray) as he's about to make a back-hand or whatever and messes up the point and ends up losing the match," he added.

"It's just crazy how it can happen still and it's really frustrating, but there's not a lot I can do now."

Thomas remains hopeful of making up ground on the leaders by the finish on 28 May, adding: "The win will be super hard to get now.

"Losing five minutes in a day is a massive loss, but I think a top 10, a top five or even a podium [is achievable]. You've just got to keep fighting and keep your head up.

"That's all I can do, really."

Stage nine result

1. Nairo Quintana (Col/Movistar) 3hrs 44mins 51secs

2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/FDJ)+24secs

3. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Sunweb) same time

4. Bauke Mollema (Neds/Trek) +41secs

5. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Bahrain) +59secs

6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) +1min 16secs

7. Tanel Kangert (Est/Astana) +2mins 01secs

8. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus/Katusha) +2mins 20secs

Overall classification after stage nine

1. Nairo Quintana (Col/Movistar) 42hrs 06mins 09secs

2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/FDJ) +28secs

3. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Sunweb) +30secs

4. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Trek) +51secs

5. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Bahrain) +1min 10secs

6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) +1min 28secs

7. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus/Katusha) +2mins 28secs

8. Davide Formolo (Ita/Cannondale) +2mins 45secs

9. Andrey Amador (Crc/Movistar) +2mins 53secs

10. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned/LottoNL) +3min 06secs