Enna (Italy), Oct 6 (IANS): Geraint Thomas is out of Giro d'Italia contention while Simon Yates lost four minutes and 22 seconds on a disastrous day for British riders in Stage 3 of the ongoing Italian Grand Tour. Thomas finished 11 minutes behind the group of GC leaders, who crossed a minute down on the stage winner.

It was a brilliant stage for EF Pro Cycling, who took the headlines for something other than their sublime kit as Jonathan Caicedo broke away to win at the summit of Mount Etna. He made a huge effort to get into the initial breakaway when it went up the road and was helped along the flatter part of the stage by teammate Lawson Craddock. When Craddock finally packed it in, Caicedo forged on with Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu) and was strong enough to drop the Italian rider about halfway up the climb.

Caicedo finished 10 seconds ahead of the chasing Visconti, with Lotto Soudal's Harm Vanhoucke in third. Wilco Kelderman secured fourth, the best placed of the pre-race GC hopefuls.

Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) assumes the race lead, on the exact same time as Caicedo.

With the win, Caicedo takes the lead of the climbers' classification after his haul of points for winning the mountain top finish, with Diego Ulissi retaining the ciclamino points jersey.