Team Saxo-Tinkoff had three riders in a big crash on today's third stage of Tour of Qatar. Jonas Aaen Jørgensen and Matti Breschel were luckily only slightly bruised but Karsten Kroon was cut by a chain ring in his right thigh.

Tuesday afternoon, he underwent surgery to stitch up the 6 centimeter long and very deep wound. Unfortunately, Karsten can't start training before another 6 weeks and will probably be out of competition for about 3 months.

“Someone in the front of the peloton went down and from then on, things went fast. A bunch of riders crashed in front of me and I couldn't get around the pile-up. Somehow I must have landed right down on a chain ring and it cut up my thigh," said Karsten Kroon last night.

"I'm extremely disappointed. I had a good feeling and I was looking forward to the spring classics, which are my favorite races of the year and now I'm going to miss the entire spring. Hopefully, I can get back in form for the summer races.”