Fabian Cancellara has successfully undergone surgery after suffering a quadruple collarbone fracture in a feed zone crash at the Tour of Flanders.

The Swiss national champion, who went into the race as joint favourite with eventual winner Tom Boonen, crashed after a water bottle hit his rear wheel 60km from the finish.

Initial reports suggest the Radioshack-Nissan-Trek rider, who will now miss Paris-Roubaix, had suffered a triple fracture but surgery revealed a four-part fracture of the right collarbone.

“The bone was put together using a special technique with a clavicle pin, allowing for a better and faster recovery,” read a Radioshack-Nissan-Trek statement. “The removal of the pin, once the bone has healed, requires a small routine operation.”

Meanwhile,  Sebastian Langeveld (GreenEDGE) is also due to have surgery after breaking his collarbone in a crash with a spectator.

“It was really hard, more than 60 kilometers per hour. I decided to divert to the bicycle path and what happened then, I can’t remember,” Langeveld told Algemeen Dagblad.

“I immediately wanted to go on, but I quickly felt that that it was really bad.”