On Monday's stage three of the Tour de France a massive crash took down a number of riders and forced three top cyclists to abandon the race — race leader Fabian Cancellara, third-placed Tom Dumoulin, and Simon Gerrans — NBC Sports reported.

William Bonnett, Dmitry Kozontchuk, and Daryl Impey also had to quit the race after crashing. Gerrans was a favorite to win the stage, which finished in Belgium on the steep Mur de Huy.

The crash took place while the peloton was riding at about 26 mph on a slight downhill, the race reported. The peloton had 33 miles to go in the stage at the time of the crash.

According to AFP: "On a straight road in clear conditions with bright sunshine, FDJ rider William Bonnet clipped the wheel of Warren Barguil in front and went down suddenly, causing a ripple through the peloton that took down scores of riders."

Here's Cancellara, in yellow, going down:

Update: Cancellara later tweeted that he "broke some bones" and that his Tour was over:

In a very rare move, the race organizers stopped the Tour de France, or "neutralized" it.

Veteran cycling commentator and former pro Paul Sherwen said on NBC Sports that he could not remember a time when Tour organizers stopped the race because of a crash.

According to one cycling official, the race organizers reportedly halted the race because there were not enough doctors or ambulances left at that moment to care for the riders.

The official race website, at LeTour.fr, said:

Due to the extraordinary circumstances of the crash at a very high speed, the race was neutralized to allow the injured riders to be back in the peloton. Twenty five minutes after the crash, a new start was given at the top of the côte de Bohisseau with 50km to go.

One rider, Laurens Ten Dam, seen lying in the middle of the road in the photo below, dislocated his shoulder, had it put back in, and finished the stage, his team said.

Several riders were left with injuries, broken bikes, ripped jerseys and shorts, and road rash:

Joaquim Rodríguez ended up winning the stage.

Chris Froome, who won the Tour in 2013, finished second and took the race lead.

You can see the crash from a rider's GoPro in the video below starting at the 1:00 mark:

 You can watch the scene immediately after the crash in the video below:

The three-week Tour de France is the world's premier bicycle race. It is the largest annual sporting event.

It started July 4 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and finishes July 26 in Paris.

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