Team Leopard-Trek's Wouter Weylandt died after crashing in a descent during stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia 2011.

New Giro d'Italia leader David Millar said moving into first place had no significance for him following the death of Belgium's Wouter Weylandt on stage three of the race.

"It means nothing. I can't even imagine what his family are going through, it's terrible," the Scotish Team Garmin-Cervelo rider told Roadcycling.com after the stage finish.

Asked if the death following a crash showed the sport was too dangerous, Millar said "It was one of the million things that we have to go through.

"Our sport is very tragic at times, it has been throughout its history, but we get mixed up in a lot of stupid things in this sport.

"But the bottom line is that it's a sport that has its risks every single day."

Millar said it was "a very technical descent."

"Fortunately we'd raced very hard in our team to be on the front going down it. But it was one where anything could have happened.

"The bottom line is that the guys here are the best cyclists in the world, and the best guys in the world can have a mechanical (fault) or find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Millar only learned of the death when he crossed the line and criticised TV bosses for showing images of the unconscious and heavily bleeding rider on the ground, saying "Why did they do that?"