Veloso breaks his collarbone

Xacobeo Galicia rider Gustavo César Veloso broke his collarbone yesterday after a fall during a pre-season mountain bike training ride. He'll undergo surgery in Lugo, Spain, to treat the injury and begin rehabilitation later today.

Veloso had ridden a cyclocross race the previous day and headed out on a mountain bike as a means of post-race recovery. Instead he's now nursing a broken clavicle which will slightly hinder his pre-season preparations.

"I had planned a 'soft' session today, since yesterday [Saturday] I had trained in the morning and in the evening I attended the cyclocross race. I was out with a cyclist. We were quiet. I put the wheel in a creek and was thrown over the handlebars," said Veloso, who won stage nine of this year's Vuelta a España in Xorret del Catí.

"I tend to be very cautious, but I couldn't help it. I think if I had gone a bit quicker the wheel would have come out of the doldrums, but as it slowly froze [I couldn't rectify it]," he explained.

The fracture is the first of this kind he has experienced in 12 years of cycling and won't threaten his 2010 season. "I was training to start the season and looked sharp in cyclocross; without assuming any kind of risk every time [I rode] I was [getting] better. Now, after surgery, I will readjust my schedule," he explained.