Volkswacht Bodensee - Olympic champion Evenepoel breaks hand and shoulder in postal van collision

The 24-year-old's team Quick-Step Soudal revealed the extent of his injuries as the Belgian was transferred to a specialist hospital for a procedure on his shoulder.

"Following an incident while training today, Remco Evenepoel was taken to hospital where it was revealed that he has sustained fractures to his rib, right shoulder blade and his right hand," the team said in a statement.

Evenepoel has a history of dramatic crashes, plunging into a ravine in Italy in 2020, being brought down in full flight by a dog at the 2023 Giro d'Italia, and early this season he suffered a high-speed downhill fall at the Tour of the Basque Country.

The Belgian won both the individual time trial and the road race at the Paris Olympics and took the best young rider's jersey at the Tour de France in July.

Evenepoel successfully defended his world time-trial title in Zurich in September and is a former winner of the Vuelta a Espana.

Although the injuries are likely to cost him several weeks of training, it is not immediately clear what impact they will have on his racing plans.

In 2025 he plans to race the Milan-San Remo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day races and the Tour de France and possibly the Giro d'Italia.

Witnesses to the accident in Brussels on Tuesday said Evenepoel, a former national youth footballer, lay stricken and ashen-faced but conscious, with his bike broken in two by the force of the impact.

Quick-Step Soudal boss Patrick Lefevere said Evenepoel had called him shortly after the fall, explaining a postwoman had opened a door of the stationary van as he cycled past it.

C.Koch--VB