Cyclist Pieter Serry was knocked off his bicycle by a team car on Stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia from Grotte di Frasassi to Ascoli Piceno today.

The 32-year-old Belgian rider, who races with the UCI WorldTeam Deceuninck–Quick-Step team, was hit by a BikeExchange team car on the final climb of the stage, but, luckily for him got back up and running on the summit finish.

Meanwhile, Dan Martin was one of the big winners on the dramatic stage as the Irishman finished third, behind stage winner Gino Mader (Bahrain-Victorious) and former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Team Ineos).

Martin has moved up to ninth overall as his Israel Start-Up team-mate Alessandro De Marchi lost the pink jersey after getting caught out when the peloton split on a descent during the mountainous 160km stage which was made trickier by the wet and cold conditions.

Mader (Bahrain-Victorious) was the only survivor from the early breakaway and was followed home 12 seconds later by Bernal, Martin and rising star Remo Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) with local favourite Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) two seconds back.

Groupama-FDJ’s Hungarian rider Attila Valter takes over the pink jersey after finishing in a group with Simon Yates, Hugh Carthy and Aleksandr Vlasov 29 seconds down.

After six stages Valter (22) leads Evenepoel by 11 seconds in the general classification with Bernal five seconds further back. Martin (34) is just 47 off the pink jersey and gained crucial time on most of his rivals on a brutally tough day.