Froome crashes ahead of Giro start

Chris Froome's bid to win the Giro d'Italia has gotten off to an inauspicious start in Jerusalem after he crashed on a reconnaissance ride of Friday's opening stage.

The first grand tour of the season starts with a 9.7-kilometre blast around the city - not a distance that will trouble any of the 176 riders but the course has several tight corners and two fast descents.

Britain's 32-year-old Team Sky star has now learned just how tricky the course is the hard way, although he is understood to have suffered only cuts and grazes when he slid off in a corner and will be fine to start his challenge.

Froome, who is trying to become only the third rider in history to hold all three grand tour titles at the same time, was not the only rider to crash on the practice lap.

Miguel Angel Lopez, another of the pre-race favourites, also came off but is not seriously hurt, but Froome's former team-mate Kanstantsin Siutsou has gone to hospital with a reported broken collarbone.

American rider Ben King tweeted that the course is "pretty complicated with bumpy off camber corners at high speed."