It's been a very unfortunate start to the season for Alessandro Vanotti: the 35-year old from Astana rider who is a fundamental domestique for Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru, crashed on Thursday during training in Calpe and has sustained a fracture in hi left tibial plateau. 

"A few kilometers away, on the coastal promenade, there was a road construction sign, a truck and a cone. Fabio Aru hit the cone which went into my wheel and I crashed. I got up and I realized there was something wrong. The left side was swollen like a watermelon," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Vanotti returned to Bergamo to find out what was wrong.

"On Friday night I went to the Hospital Papa Giovanni in Bergamo and I have to thank Dr. Antonino Cassisi, Sergio Veneziani and the chief of Orthopedics Castelli who allowed me to be examined immediately."

An MRI is scheduled for Monday when it will be determined whether Vanotti will need a surgery or not, and the recovery time will be made clear. 

"Put it this way, the important thing is that Fabio was not injured. I only regret that something like this has never happened to me in training. "