Julian Alaphilippe: World champion suffers multiple injuries in Liege-Bastogne-Liege crash

Alaphilippe, in white with the rainbow stripe, has won back-to-back World Championships

World champion Julian Alaphilippe suffered two broken ribs, a broken scapula and a collapsed lung after hitting a tree during Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day race.

A huge crash brought down many riders 62km out, with Alaphilippe landing in a ditch and hitting a tree.

Remco Evenepoel, 22, won the race.

It was a first Monument - one of the five biggest one-day races - win for the Belgian, a Quick-Step team-mate of Alaphilippe, who attacked 30km from the line and rode solo to take a spectacular victory.

"It's crazy," said Evenepoel. "My first ever Liege and I win it."

Nearly a minute behind, Quinten Hermans outsprinted fellow cyclo-cross racer Wout van Aert to take second in an all-Belgian podium.

Britain's Tom Pidcock, Ineos' Olympic mountain bike champion, was one of the first to fall and about 30 riders crashed in total on a fast, downhill section of the course in the Ardennes forest in Belgium.

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Double world champion Alaphilippe has now fallen three times in races this season, following crashes at Strade Bianche in early March and La Fleche Brabanconne 10 days ago.

Team-mate Ilan Van Wilder also his jaw in the incident on Sunday.