Tadej Pogacar, a two-time Tour de France winner, shattered his wrist after collapsing during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic.

Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates stated that the 24-year-old Slovenian would require surgery.

“Because it’s a multiple fracture, the surgery will be complicated.” “It’s too soon to talk about the Tour de France,” UAE Emirates director Mauro Gianetti remarked.

Remco Evenepoel of Belgium won the event.

He defended his championship after winning it last year, with Britain’s Tom Pidcock finishing second.

Demi Vollering of the Netherlands had earlier won the women’s race in a historic victory.

After 85 kilometers, Pogacar collided with Dane Mikkel Honore, who also had to withdraw from the race, and was transported to the hospital.

Pogacar “suffered fractures to the left scaphoid and lunate bones” in the wrist, according to UAE Team Emirates medical director Dr Adrian Rotunno, who added that a specialized hand surgeon would operate on the rider on Sunday.

Pogacar’s final race before traveling to altitude training for the Tour de France, which begins on July 1st, was Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

He was the pre-race favorite after winning this season’s Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne, and he hoped to become only the third man to complete a hat-trick of Ardennes classic victories.

Only Davide Rebellin in 2004 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011 completed the treble of victories.

Evenepoel, 23, of Soudal Quick-Step, cruised to win on the 258km route, pulling away with 30km to go and finishing more than a minute ahead of his nearest rivals.

Pidcock of Ineos Grenadier outsprinted Colombia’s Santiago Buitrago Sanchez for second place, with Ireland’s Ben Healy close behind in fourth.

Evenepoel became the first rider since Michele Bartoli in 1998 to win the race twice in a row.