Castroviejo, Cummings out of Basque Country with fractures

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Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) and Steve Cummings (Team Dimension Data) have abandoned the Tour of the Basque Country with injuries suffered in crashes on the third stage.

Castroviejo was the more seriously injured. He was involved in the large crash with only 6km to go, which also saw Sky teammates Geraint Thomas and Enric Mas hit the road. The Spaniard was initially diagnosed with a fractured collarbone, but further examinations turned up three addition fractures.

"One of his ribs is fractured, he has a very small fracture on his left wrist, and he has a stable fracture of parts of his vertebra," Team Sky said on their website. None of these injuries should need any intervention but he will probably require surgery for the collarbone. Castroviejo was expected to leave hospital today and return home for further treatment.

His teammate Thomas was luckier, and posted on Twitter, "I landed on the same spot as when I fractured my pelvis during the Tour back in 2013 but it's nowhere near as painful. I'll be back out there tomorrow.”

Cummings crashed only 25km into the stage and had to leave the race immediately. "After further examinations, scans revealed that Steve has a fracture of the left clavicle. Fortunately, at this stage surgery will not be required as part of his recovery process," team doctor Samuel Fisser said on the Dimension Data website.

Another victim of the large closing crash was Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep). The Milan-Sanremo winner, who had won the previous stage and was in second position overall, finished the stage as last and did not take to the start of Thursday's stage 4. His team said "it's best that he stops and focuses on his recovery."