Two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard will undergo surgery on a fractured collarbone after he suffered a miserable end to his Tour de France on Sunday, crashing around 20km from the end of the 15th stage.
The 29-year-old Dane, who was sitting second overall, went down hard on a bend as his Visma-Lease a Bike team were setting a fierce pace to chase down the day's breakaway.
"Jonas sustained a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions," his team said in a statement.
"Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days.
"Join us in wishing Jonas a smooth recovery."
Vingegaard was visibly in pain following the crash, which also caused another four riders to fall.
He was helped into a medical vehicle with his arm in a sling.
"He was in pain, of course, at that moment and it was quite quickly clear that he could not continue," his sporting director Marc Reef told reporters.
"They put him in the ambulance and then he left.
"We had today a big goal, of course, to try to win the stage.
"Everything went according to plan until the moment that he crashed."
This was the first time that Vingegaard had been unable to finish a Grand Tour.
In his five previous participations at the Tour, he won twice and finished second in the other three.
'REALLY BAD NEWS'
Vingegaard was bidding to become just the ninth man to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same year, two years after his chief rival Tadej Pogacar achieved the same feat.
The Dane's rivals in the battle for the yellow jersey slowed, waiting to see if he would rejoin their group before their teams informed them that he had quit the race and they could push on.
That briefly impeded their chase of the seven breakaway leaders. The elite group reached the 11km-long climb to the finish around two and a half minutes behind Swiss rider Mauro Schmid, who had stolen a march on his breakaway companions.
Remco Evenpoel went on to win the 183.9km stage from Champagnole in the Jura to Plateau de Solaison in the Alps, pipping Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish.
"It's really bad news in the first place for himself, for his team and also for the race that he's out," Evenepoel about Vingegaard.
"It's something you never wish to anybody."
Race leader and reigning champion Pogacar's teammate Isaac Del Toro was one of the other fallers, although he was able to set off again soon afterwards to rejoin the peloton.
He finished the stage in third and moved up from seventh to third overall.
Vingegaard's American teammate Sepp Kuss was another to tumble. He took a lot longer to get going again.
When he did, he was a long way behind the group of leaders.
Vingegaard's crash came just hours after he and Pogacar were among several riders woken up at their hotels in the night by anti-doping controllers.
Vingegaard was woken at 2:00 am, while Pogacar was disturbed three hours later.