Australian Caleb Ewan shaken after high-speed crash during Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under

YOUNG sprinter Caleb Ewan says he won't know the extent of his injuries from a nasty crash 3km from the finish in Stirling today until he wakes in the morning.

Caleb Ewen

YOUNG sprinter Caleb Ewan says he won't know the extent of his injuries from a nasty crash 3km from the finish in Stirling today until he wakes in the morning.

A bloodied Ewan was treated for skin grazing after Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under when a group of six riders hit the ground at high speed.

Ewan's shorts were torn in several sections and blood was coming from his knee.

Other riders caught in the crash were from Katusha, Movistar and Lampre-Merida who appears to have lost Rafael Valls Ferri with a collarbone injury after he left the medical tent with his arm in a sling.

MORE: Replay our Stage 2 blog

Tempers flared after the crash with Movistar's Imanol Erviti exchanging words and waving his hands at Katusha's Marco Haller.

"I can't really remember," Ewan said of the incident.

"I just remember there was a twitch in the bunch and I clipped the wheel and I'm disappointed more than anything.

Caleb Ewen

"If I could get to 1km to go then it was definitely a finish that really suited me and I was disappointed to come down at the end there."

GALLERY: Best action shots from Stage 2

Asked if he's confident he would start Stage 3 in Norwood tomorrow, Ewan said:

"Yeah, it's just skin off but it depends if I'm going to be pretty stiff tomorrow."

Ewan's UniSA-Australia teammates and director Dave Sanders didn't see the crash but came across the aftermath and saw the young sprinter lying on the ground.

"We were there just after and he was still laying on the road," Sanders said.

"I have no idea (what happened), he said a name, somebody did whatever, but it was a shame because he said he was up for it and was feeling really good.

"He was right there amongst it and we thought if he felt good, this was a stage he could do really well in but that's racing."

Sanders said he was still pleased with UniSA-Australia's performance after Campbell Flakemore was in the main break of the day which made it 25km to the finish before being caught.

"That's all we could do, the guys were there and did what they had to do.

"We had two aims, to get Caleb right there in the finale and a couple of climbers up there for the GC to maintain their placing for later in the week.

"I've just got here and it doesn't look great at the moment, everybody got caught (up) in that fall."