Remco Evenepoel has crashed and fallen several metres off a bridge during the Il Lombardia race.
The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider was part of a leading group who were descending off the Colma di Sormano – the highest climb on the race.
The 23-year-old was lying around fourth in the group when he struck the wall of a bridge before somersaulting on to his back and over the edge.
Evenepoel was attended to by paramedics and taken to hospital.
The Belgian rider is one of the most promising prospects in road cycling, winning the Tour of Poland and the Volta a Burgos already this year.
“Remco Evenepoel has been tended to by the doctors and is now taken to the hospital with the ambulance,” said a team statement
The Tour of Poland is also the race where Evenepoel’s team-mate Fabio Jakobsen last week suffered a huge crash in a bunch sprint on the first stage.
Jakobsen was hospitalised and put into an induced coma as well as having plastic surgery to his face.
The crash was caused when Jumbo-Visma’s Dylan Groenewegen leaned toward Jakobsen, causing him to be pitched into barriers which broke and saw the sprinter strike a post and a spectator, who also needed hospital treatment.
It prompted an angry reaction, leading Jakobsen’s team boss to call for Groenewegen to be jailed.
Jakobsen has since been transferred to hospital in his native Netherlands to continue his recovery.
