No one ever said the Tour de France was meant to be easy. But Caja Rural-Seguros RGA are really getting a taste of just how cruel and brutal the worlds biggest bike race can be. The Spanish wildcard team enjoyed a positive start to their debut Tour with Alex Molenaar claiming the polka dot jersey on stage two, only for the Dutch-Spaniard to crash out of the race just three days later. A week on, and Caja have been reduced to six riders, with their sprinter Fernando Gaviria breaking his collarbone in the closing metres of stage 12 in Chalon-sur-Sane.Gaviria touched the back wheel of Bahrain Victoriouss Robert Stannard just as the fast-men launched their sprints, bringing down a number of others with him, including stage 11 winner Soren Wrenskjold of Uno-X Mobility, Dorian Godon of Ineos Grenadiers, and Jenno Berckmoes of Lotto-Intermarch. The latter, like Gaviria, fractured his collarbone and has since abandoned the race.Its bad luck, Caja Rural manager Jose Manuel Hernndez told Cycling Weekly. We have lost two of the teams most important riders.Alex was a really strong rider for the breakaways and if he could have arrived in a small group to a finish, he could have been a player [for the stage win].And now to lose our sprinter is really hard. Were the smallest team in the Tour and to lose our two most important pieces its difficult.At the time of speaking, Hernndez didnt know if Gaviria was out of the race, but he admitted that it looks really bad. He added: We think this was the penultimate opportunity for Fernando and we came into it with a lot of desire to do well so its a shame. We had a lot of hopes for him. Hes a rider that everyone thought was lost but who weve helped return, and for him to be here in the Tour and fighting for stages was something really great for us, as was seeing him enjoying riding his bike bike again. Why couldnt he have achieved a victory?The Tour had other ideas, though. Aged 31, and with Caja certainly not assured of a spot in the Tour next year, the Colombian who won two stages back in 2018, might possibly have ridden his last Tour stage.Now Caja, short of their two best riders, have to switch their mentality in the latter half of the race. We have to change our chip a little bit, and look at our other options including the climbers we have, Hernndez said." We know itll be difficult to win a stage but were going to try. Why cant we?As for Wrenskjold, his boss at Uno-X reported that the Norwegian had not broken any bones but was left banged up after being caught up in the crash.Hes hurt everywhere, said Thor Hushovd. Sliding on the road at nearly 80kmh, its painful. Its a shame because he was in good shape, but its part of cycling.Half of the bunch got knocked down in a very fast final. Scary images, but it seems like more or less everybody could finish the race.