Lipowitz suffers broken collarbone in Tour crash as season at risk

Top German rider Florian Lipowitz broke his collarbone in a crash on the 16th stage of the Tour de France and his season could now be compromised.

Last year's third-place finisher was fifth overall heading into Tuesday's time trial but a heavy crash at speed meant he had to withdraw from the race given his injury, which was confirmed by his Red Bull team.

He will miss at least six weeks, which makes the Vuelta (August 22 to September 13) impossible and the World Championships in Montreal (September 20 to 27) unlikely. The one-day races in Italy at the end of the season such as the Tour of Lombardy (October 10) are still doable.

It was a bitter-sweet day for the team given other leading rider Remco Evenepoel won the stage to trim Tadej Pogačar's overall lead to 4 minutes 32 seconds. The Tour concludes on Sunday.

Team boss Ralph Denk said: "We will not only miss Florian in the fight for the podium, we will also miss him here as a person. We won but it is not as if it is super great for us. I also feel sorry for Remco that not everything here is peace, joy and pancakes."