Leading Australian road cyclist Amy Gillett was killed and two of her team mates are fighting for their lives after an out-of-control car crashed into six members of the national development squad during a training ride in eastern Germany.

Three other team members are also in hospital with serious injuries, but are listed in a stable condition.

Adelaide-born Gillett, 29, who rowed for Australia at the Atlanta Olympics and was a medal contender in road cycling at next year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games, is understood to have been at the head of the group when the car veered into them. She died from multiple injuries.

Alexis Rhodes, 20, from Kersbrook, South Australia, is listed in a critical condition and 23-year-old Louise Yaxley from Penguin, Tasmania, is in a serious condition, one level down from critical.

Those in stable conditions are Lorian Graham, 27, of Brisbane, and two Sydney riders from famous cycling families - 20-year-old Kate Nichols, whose father Kevin was a Los Angeles Olympics gold medallist, and Katie Brown, 22, sister of Athens gold medallist Graeme Brown.

Cycling Australia (CA) chief executive Graham Fredericks said it had been feared Brown may lose a badly fractured leg, but she had been stabilised after successful surgery.

Brown and Nichols are in the same hospital in the town of Jena, German authorities said.

"It is certainly a very tense moment while we hope that the other two are pulling through OK," Fredericks said.

The families of the injured riders are making their way to Germany.

The driver of the car, an 18-year-old woman understood to have held a licence for only a few weeks, is also badly injured. She faces charges of negligent driving resulting in death and injury.

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