Cycling: Trek Factory's Andy Schleck unfazed by stage three crash

Schleck (Trek Factory) crashed towards the end of stage three in London and finished one minute, five seconds behind winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), which saw him drop to 56th in the general classification (GC), 2:24 adrift of Nibali (Astana), who holds the yellow jersey.

But the 2010 Tour de France champion was nonplussed when interviewed after the day's racing, claiming he should be able to bridge the gap to the leading GC riders throughout the French grand tour.

"Normally it's the three kilometre rule and they keep the same time but I don't think it will be the case today," Schleck told the Tour's official website.

"We lost something like over a minute but it's not over, the Tour has just started, in the climbs I think that will change."

While spectators received a lot of criticism during the first two stages in the United Kingdom for getting in the way of cyclists, Schleck denied any fans had contributed to his crash on the 155 kilometres from Cambridge to London.

The 29-year-old from Luxembourg added the crash should not hinder him too much over the coming days as Le Tour returns to France.

"I'm OK, sh** happens. I was very unlucky, it was not even raining, it was dry road, and one guy moved from the left to the right and I could not really avoid him and went straight down on the ground at high speed," Schleck said.

"I lost a bit of skin on the road. On the right side, on the arm, the hip and the ribs.

"No spectator was involved. I guess it was my own fault."