Matteo Trentin suffers broken rib after crashing into stone wall on training ride

Little more than a week after starting a new contract with Mitchelton-Scott and Matteo Trentin's 2018 season has already suffered a setback after he crashed on a training ride.

The Italian crashed while training in the south France, hitting the deck on a descent and crashing into a wall while riding on Saturday.

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"I was training on Saturday with some hill efforts when I slipped on the downhill and went into a stone wall," Trentin said.

"When I saw I was more or less OK, I decided to try to go home by bike but after one minute I understood something was wrong because I had difficulty breathing, so my girlfriend picked me up and took me to the Monaco Hospital."

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Hospital scans revealed that Trentin had suffered a fractured rib as well as other superficial wounds, meaning that he will be out of action for just over a week.

"Matteo Trentin had a fall in training resulting in a fracture to the right fifth rib," said Robbart van Linschoten, Mitchelton-Scott's head doctor. "He will undertake ten days of rest before further assessment."

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Trentin, who enjoyed a highly successful second half of the 2017 season winning four stages of the Vuelta a España as well as Paris-Tours, said that the injury was not causing him too much pain and thanked his training partners for their help.

"I am resting at the moment and can't do a lot, but I am not in too much pain if I stay calm," Trentin continued. "I must thank Philippe Gilbert and Amaël Moinard who were training with me and were a nice help."

The 28-year-old joined Mitchelton-Scott at the start of the year after six seasons at Quick-Step Floors. His schedule for the 2018 season is yet to be confirmed, but early season goals are expected to include Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix.