Fernando Gaviria, the young sprinter who burst onto the scene at last year’s Tour de San Luis, has been forced to abandon this year’s race.

The Etixx-Quick Step sprinter went down in a crash with 25km to go on stage five and x-rays revealed a fracture to the radius bone in his left arm.

>>> Tour de San Luis: German Tivani wins stage five as big crash hampers peloton

Three other Etixx riders went down in the same pile-up, meaning four of the squad’s six riders were involved in the incident.

Among the other fallers from the Belgian team was Rodrigo Contreras, another young Colombian rider and at the time the leader of the young rider classification.

He suffered a cut to his right knee that required 15 stitches and as such was also forced to withdraw ahead of stage six.

Maximiliano Richeze and Stijn Vandenbergh were the other two Etixx riders to require medical attention as a result of the crash, but the team says that both are presently planning to continue with the race.

An update on the condition and recovery of Contreras and Gaviria will be released by their team in the next few days.