Alberto Contador dislocates shoulder in stage 6 sprint finish

Alberto Contador at the Giro d’Italia

Alberto Contador sustained a shoulder injury during the dying stages of stage 6 at the Giro d’Italia. Despite this setback, the Spaniard still holds the overall lead in the race.

A camera waving spectator caused the crash when Italy’s Daniele Colli was stuck by a camera zoom lens near the barrier. This is the second incident in five days after a collective crash was caused by a spectator on a bicycle on Sunday.

"During the night he will keep his arm immobilised as doctors have advised him," Contador's spokesman Jacinto Vidarte said. "He's going to try and start with a bandage to support his arm," he added.

Contador pulled out of Tour de France last year after fracturing his tibia. Vidarte added that this injury isn’t that serious.

"He (Contador) said it (the knee injury) was nothing, there isn't a lot of pain. Nothing is broken. It's not a fall as serious as that at the Tour de France last year."

Time differences have been neutralized since the crash took place within three kilometres of the finish line. Contador leads Italy’s Fabio Aru by two seconds, while Australia’s Richie Porte is third at 20 seconds in the leader board.

Contador is on a mission to become only the eighth rider to achieve the Giro – Tour de France double in the same year.

Andre Greipel won stage 6 in 4 hours, 19 minutes and 42 seconds. Italians Matteo Pelucchi and Sacha Modolo finished second and third respectively. It is the fourth win of the season for Greipel. "I now have the points leader's red jersey but it's not my main objective. What I want is to win stages," said Greipel.

The seventh stage gets underway on Friday and is the longest stretch of this year’s race at 264 km.