The Danish Visma-Lease a Bike rider was hospitalised after suffering rib and collarbone fractures and sustaining lung damage in the shocking incident during the Tour of the Basque Country race.

Vingegaard, 27, who won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, is hoping to complete a hat-trick of victories this summer but the crash has put his participation under significant doubt.

"Jonas had a successful operation on his collarbone," said Visma on social media network X.

"He will now spend the next few weeks recovering. It is not yet clear how long this will take.

"He is doing well and expresses his gratitude to everyone for their kind words over the past few days."

Remco Evenepoel also broke his collarbone in the crash on stage four of the race in northern Spain, while leader Primoz Roglic retired after he also fell, along with several other riders, but the Slovenian did not sustain any fractures.

Visma's other star rider Wout van Aert broke his collarbone and several ribs in a high-speed mass pile-up during the Around Flanders one-day race in March.

Last week Visma chief Richard Plugge told AFP cycling needed to take action to keep riders safer.

"Let's go, let's start - it will not be solved in a week," he said.

"It will take time, so the earlier we start the better it is."