Dockx out for six weeks with fractured elbow and collarbone

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Gert Dockx (Lotto - Belisol) goes into his second year with the team (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Gert Dockx (Lotto - Belisol) (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Mark Cavendish drives for the line in a HTC photo shoot. Gert Dockx is holding up the 'we love you' sign (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Gert Dockx isn't enjoying life at the back of the bunch. (Image credit: Sergio Carmona)

The first Belgian race of the season took out Belgian rider Gert Dockx. The Lotto Belisol rider crashed in the first third of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and is now out for about six weeks with a broken collar bone and elbow.

“The unfortunate rider incurred a small fracture of the elbow and the collar-bone. For the next few days the elbow will be in a plaster cast, afterwards there will be a check-up,” the team said in a press release Sunday. “The total inactivity is estimated at six weeks."

Only 69km into the race, Dockx was involved in a large crash, but was apparently the only one injured.

The 24-year-old had won two stages in the Tropicale Amisso Bongo in January. He turned pro with Columbia-HighRoad in 2009, and joined Lotto in 2011.