World champion Julian Alaphilippe hit a tree in a mass fall 60km from the finish line of the  Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day cycling classic on Sunday before being rushed to hospital complaining of severe back pain.

Ineos’ British rider Tom Pidcock fell first and took down around thirty riders on the 257.5km race through the Ardennes forest in Belgium on a narrow, wooded section where the peloton was racing hard.

Frenchman Alaphilippe was able to move his legs and was conscious as the 29-year-old was taken away by ambulance with his mangled bike left abandoned down a slope off the roadside.

 

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