A crash so bad that it even put the brakes on iron-man Chris
BROKEN BONES PUT PAID TO FROOME’S BID FOR AN HISTORIC FIFTH TOUR WIN
CHRIS FROOME’S terrifying 40mph crash into a wall did not just spell the end of his crusade for a record-equalling fifth Yellow Jersey this year.
It was a sobering reminder of the inherent risks facing elite cyclists – and the granite toughness required to ply their trade.
Froome is out of next month’s Tour de France after breaking his leg, elbow and ribs and being airlifted to hospital for further assessment of his multiple injuries.
If he is to match Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain and Bernard Hinault’s joint record of five titles on Le Tour, he will have to wait until he has turned 35.
For all the cheap shots aimed at cyclists about doping, Tour de France winners are tested up to 30 times in three weeks, more than other elite sports test leading players in a lifetime.
Snipers and cynics are less voluble about the immense physical courage of the peloton’s leading lights.
Froome was scouting the 16.2mile Dauphine time trial course in Roanne with Team Ineos lieutenant Wout Poels when a gust of wind sent him veering off the road on a high-speed downhill stretch while he was blowing his nose.
He was treated in a parked ambulance and locally at a clinic in Roanne before his helicopter transfer to hospital in St Etienne, where wife Michelle rushed from their home in Monaco to be at his bedside.
Froome is so hard he could knock a picture hook into your living room wall with his forehead.
Even when he was forced to abandon his defence of the Yellow Jersey after just five stages in 2014, he rode for 100 miles with a broken right wrist and a fractured bone in his left hand.
Doctors were staggered that he managed to grip the handlebars over such a long distance.
But he is not indestructible, and is unlikely to be back in the saddle in 2019.
Shocked Team Ineos principal Sir Dave Brailsford admitted: “Chris had worked incredibly hard to get in fantastic shape and was on track for the Tour, which he will now miss.
“But one of the things that sets him apart is his mental strength and resilience – and we will support him totally in his recovery, help him to recalibrate and assist him in pursuing his future goals and ambitions.”
Another Brit, Adam Yates, moved into the leader’s jersey on the Dauphine after yesterday’s time trial – catapulting the Mitchelton-Scott rider into favour with recent history.
In five of the last seven years, the Dauphine winner has gone on to claim the Yellow Jersey, with Froome doing the ‘double’ three times.