The 23-year-old, who earlier this week won the Tour de Pologne and had an impressive unbeaten streak so far this year, was part of the leading group when he verged off to the right, clipping his bike into an edge of bridge on the route from Bergamo to Como in Italy.

Footage from the race shows him tumbling over the handlebars, being catapulted out of shot.

He was attended to by paramedics and was reportedly responding well, despite falling several metres.

"Remco Evenepoel has been tended to by the doctors and is now taken to the hospital with the ambulance," said a statement from his team, Deceuninck-Quick Step.

The team has had a difficult couple of weeks following the injuries suffered by Fabio Jakobsen at the Tour de Pologne in a bunch sprint, which ended in the Dutchman somersaulting over the barriers after being squeezed into them by compatriot Dylan Groenewegen.

"We didn’t see the fall ourselves, we only heard about it on the race radio," said Deceuninck-Quick Step sport director Davide Bramati to Sporza about Evenepoel's crash.

"When we saw that Remco's data had stopped, we already thought it was him -when we got there, all I saw was his bike. 

"A bike without a rider, that's not a pleasant sight. 

"I walked straight down and quickly saw that he was okay. 

"He could talk and said he had pain in his right side - he's in the hospital now, with the doctor, Patrick [Lefevere] and his family. 

"I think he'll be all right, but may the bad luck stop for us now."

It is reported that Evenepoel has fractured his pelvis and will be ruled out for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, coming into the finish Germany's Max Schachmann was knocked off his bike by a car that was not associated with the event - raising questions over the organisation of the race that is part of the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour. 

The UCI later announced they had launched an investigation into the incident involving Schachmann.

"Events on the UCI WorldTour calendar are of the highest level and require fully closed roads at all times," the world governing body said in a statement.

"The UCI will consider lodging a complaint with the Disciplinary Commission against the event organiser RCS Sport."

In the race itself, the second monument of this interrupted season, Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang of Astana, took the win by 31 seconds, stopping the clock at 5 hours 32min 54sec.

He was joined on the podium by New Zealand's George Bennett of Team Jumbo-Visma, who was 20 seconds ahead of Fuglsang's teammate Aleksandr Vlasov of Russia.

Dutch cyclist Bauke Mollema led a trio of Trek-Segafredo riders in the top six - 79 seconds off the pace of the Dane.

His Italian team-mates Giulio Ciccone and Vincenzo Nibali followed him, with Schachmann recovering to finish seventh, 4min 31sec behind Fuglsang.

With nine kilometres to go, Vlasov looked to help Fuglsang by increasing the pace as the duo were joined by Bennett - pushing away from Ciccone and Mollema and a mile later, the Russian was dropped as the Kiwi cyclist hit the front on the uphill.

With less than four miles to go, the Dane kicked it up another gear and a kilometre later had a resounding 16-second lead over his nearest rival, stretching that gap over the last five minutes of racing.

Speaking to RAI television, Fuglsang said: "I felt good but you never know how the others feel. 

"I saw George Bennett was strong and he'd won a couple of days ago and it was important to reduce the group and Vlasov was a champion today - he gave me a big hand to finish things off. 

"In the finale I told myself to wait for the sprint, I thought that I could beat him [Bennett], but when he attacked a second time I decided to go myself and he faded."