Tim Wellens latest big name to break a bone in Opening Weekend as more crashes affect Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

Crashes battered Opening Weekend for the second day in a row on Sunday, as more incidents in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne led to multiple big-name abandons and injuries.

Belgian champion Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was forced to abandon the race after a heavy crash in the peloton that saw him end up in the ditch at the side of the road.

The Belgian was one of several riders to hit the deck with 112km to go, and whilst he was able to get up from the crash, he was clearly in a lot of pain and he was not able to continue riding.

He was seen by the race doctor and then taken away in an ambulance. After the stage, his team confirmed that he had fractured his collarbone.

"Unfortunately, Tim Wellens sustained a right clavicle fracture from his crash today," UAE medical director Dr Adrian Rotunno said. "He will undergo surgery this evening before beginning a recovery at home under the supervision of team medical staff."

Several other riders involved in the same crash also had to abandon, including Sean Christian (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) and Rory Townsend (Unibet Rose Rockets).

It's not clear exactly what caused the crash, and Wellens' sports director Marco Marcato was none the wiser at the finish, at the time still waiting to hear an update on his rider.

"There was a sort of break in the peloton and a domino effect, and probably he was in the worst position and he fell down, but I don't know the dynamic of the crash," Marcato told Cyclingnews.

A total of 35 riders abandoned the race, including sprint contender Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) and almost the entirety of Jasper Philipsen's Alpecin-Premier Tech lead-out, leaving him to flounder in the sprint and finish a distant 18th.

This latest injuries and accidents come after a crash-filled day at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, where incidents saw riders lose teeth and suffer femur and pelvis fractures.

The injury toll from the weekend feels particularly high, though Marcato was keen to stress that it was not necessarily unusual for Opening Weekend to unfold like this.

"Always the first weekend in Belgium, everyone is excited to race, they are ready, there is a lot of expectation from all the riders. The level also is super high and everybody wants to be in front, but there's physically only one place in front, and somebody has to be in the last position," he said.

"So it's normal that it happens. It was a race accident. It happens in the past, and it will happen in the future for sure."

A significant loss for UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pogačar

Crashing out and breaking his collarbone is of course a big personal blow to Tim Wellens, but it could also have ripple effects for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Classics to come.

Wellens is a strong one-day racer in his own right, but he's also an important part of Tadej Pogačar's support team, often being one of the final riders with the Slovenian before the key attacks, and possessing the valuable ability to put the power down in important moments.

Undergoing surgery on Saturday, Wellens may not actually be out for that long, with riders often coming back from broken collarbones in a matter of weeks, but even the fastest recovery will likely see him miss Milan-San Remo, and that could prove very costly for Pogačar.

As we've seen in recent years, Pogačar and UAE need to throw everything at making the Cipressa and Poggio as hard and fast as possible if they want to put the world champion into a winning position. That involves putting together a monstrous lead-out into the climbs – which Wellens would be an important part of.

With San Remo only two weeks away, the chances of Wellens being there are near impossible, and UAE don't have a like-for-like replacement for him. Riders like Isaac del Toro and Jhonatan Narváez will have to step up hugely for UAE's tactic to finally work.

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