Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma), winner of last year's Tour de l'Avenir, broke his collarbone in the second stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

In another crash, Tony Gallopin broke his wrist, and AG2R La Mondial teammate Oliver Naessen bruised his pelvis but escaped with a broken bone.

Foss was hoping to make an impact as one of the wave of young talent in the propeloton and even tried to perform in the steep uphill finish in Cullera.

However, with 5 km to go before the finish, he collapsed on the road. The exact cause of the crash is unknown, but Foss hit his right shoulder hard. He recovered quickly, but it was clear that he could not participate in the race any longer.

After being rushed to the hospital, X-rays confirmed that he had broken his right collarbone.

"What a start to my professional career, haha," Hoss wrote on Twitter.

"Glad it didn't get worse, as some broken clavicles require surgery! Big thanks to the team for taking care of me! I'll be back soon."

Foss' injury was another setback for the Jumbo-Visma team, which lost Tom Dumoulin to illness the night before the race. The absence of Dumoulin, a former Giro d'Italia winner, was expected to allow Foss to lead the overall battle, but the Dutch team has already taken a stage win with sprinter Dylan Groenewegen.

"We were expecting him [Foss] to join the battle with a finish like this," said coach Grischa Niermann. 'This is very annoying for him and for the team. But this is part of cycling."

There was frustration in the AG2R camp as well. With 15 km to go, he hit the deck and broke the navicular bone in his left wrist.

He completed the stage but did not race Friday's third stage, and the team said a recovery time would be determined later.

In an interview with Cyclingnews in November, Gallopin expressed frustration that his bad luck over the past two seasons had derailed his ambitions.

"I used to hardly ever crash, but in the last two years I've crashed every other race. I'm in a spiral."

Gallopin's teammate Oliver Naessen was also involved in the crash and hit his pelvis. He limped to the finish 12 minutes behind the leader, but was cleared of any broken bones and allowed to continue racing for five days.