Australian veteran Mathew Hayman has been ruled out of cycling's Spring Classics after suffering a broken arm while racing in Belgium.
Hayman suffered a fracture to the radius bone in his right arm when he was involved in a crash at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race on Saturday.
It's a significant blow for the Australian-owned Orica-GreenEdge team who had assigned 37-year-old Hayman to be their road captain of the squad for the major one-day races in Europe known as the Spring Classics.
Hayman had been in good form and was a strong contributor to the team's success on home soil over the Australian summer.
"It is one of those things, part of racing, part of our sport, but still always hard to accept," said Hayman.
"I had spent months training for these races and to have it end like that, so quickly is disappointing to say the least."
"It is not a complicated fracture, and I am hoping that it will heal quickly and I can be back on the road with the boys as fast as possible."
Orica-GreenEdge sports director Laurenzo Lapage was ruing misfortune for both Hayman and the team.
"It is a real shame that we will go into the next races without Mat," Lapage said.
"He was our road captain and someone who is always 100 per cent ready for the Classics.
"When he crashed, he was sitting in the right position as always, but it just goes to show how luck and often bad luck is a deciding factor in these races."
