Rising Australian cycling Campbell Flakemore will have surgery on Thursday after breaking his collarbone in a post-race crash during the Tour Down Under.
The accident puts the 22-year-old out of the tour and leaves a dent in Cadel Evans' hopes of winning his last WorldTour race before retirement.
BMC team doctor Scott Major said Flakemore had a clean break in the middle of his left clavicle.
"(It) is the best place for a fracture to occur - it is also most amenable to fixing it surgically," Dr Major said.
Flakemore was riding back to the race hotel from the stage-two finish at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills when the accident happened.
"It was a left-hand turn and on the shoulder there was gravel or I maybe hit a bit of a groove, the next thing I knew I was on the ground," he said.
"As soon as I got up, I knew something in my shoulder or collarbone was pretty bad."
Flakemore was riding at about 55-60km/h when he fell.
Most, if not all, of the Tour Down Under riders would have ridden the 17km from the stage finish to the Hilton Hotel race headquarters in Adelaide.
"It was a little bit of a difficult situation - riding back we were riding fast to avoid crashes, people, and unfortunately it was really unlucky," Evans said.
The reigning under-23 world time trial champion is in his first month as a WorldTour professional and was showing strong form.
He was impressing Evans, his team leader, who admitted losing him was a significant blow.
"Of course, we're one teammate down," Evans said.
"But most of all, it's really disappointing it's Campbell.
"As he showed in the national championships, as he showed today, he's been professional for about 10 days and he has a fantastic eye for the race."
Despite the setback, team director Fabio Baldato remains confident.
"We need to be more attentive, but I still have five strong riders next to Cadel," Baldato said.
"I'm confident they can do the work of Campbell ... all the guys want to give a present to Campbell."
Flakemore, one of Australian cycling's brightest young talents, finished fourth earlier this month at the road nationals.
On Wednesday he was in a three-rider break that dominated the 150.5km second stage from suburban Unley to Stirling.
Flakemore, compatriot Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) went clear at 16km and stayed away until 24.5km left.
Spaniard Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) won the uphill bunch sprint to win the stage.
Adelaide's Jack Bobridge (UniSA) finished 20th to retain his overall lead, three seconds ahead of Lobato.
Evans was fifth and fellow race favourite Richie Porte (Sky) was seventh ahead of Thursday's key stage.
The 143.2km stage from Norwood features a short but brutal 800m climb at Paracombe in the Adelaide Hills.
Evans and Porte are among 46 riders who are within 13 seconds of Bobridge, who will do well to keep the lead at Paracombe.
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