Broken champ quits Tour de France
ARENBERG, FRANCE — Reigning champion Chris Froome crashed twice and quit the Tour de France on Wednesday during a chaotic, nerve-jangling, filthy fifth stage full of spills.
Froome fell even before the seven cobblestone patches on the slick road from Ypres, Belgium, to Arenberg-Porte du Hainaut in France. Riders had known months ago about the bone-jarring course; incessant rain made it even more treacherous.
The withdrawal of the Team Sky leader left the race wide open with 16 stages still left.
Overall race leader Vincenzo Nibali wasted little time in speeding ahead, notably after he saw that his other big rival for the title this year, two-time Tour victor Alberto Contador, had trouble on the second run on cobbles.
Sensing danger from the rain, race organizers scrapped two of the nine scheduled cobblestone patches, and reduced the stage by three kilometres. But that still wasn’t enough to stop many riders from tumbling.
Already nursing pain in his left wrist from a crash on Tuesday, Froome took his third and last spill in two days about halfway through the stage. With a cut under his right eye, the Team Sky leader limped over to a team car, climbed in and drove away.
Froome tweeted he was “devastated” to have to withdraw.
“Injured wrist and tough conditions made controlling my bike near to impossible,” he wrote.
The last time a defending champion abandoned the Tour was fivetime winner Bernard Hinault of France in 1980.
Nibali, too, was one of several high-profile riders who crashed, recovered and excelled on the 152.5-kilometre (95-mile) route. The Italian finished third and extended his lead. He and second-place Jakob Fuglsang of Denmark were 19 seconds behind stage winner Lars Boom of the Netherlands.
“This is a special, special day for me,” said Boom, who rides for Belkin Pro Cycling.
Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., was tied for 99th in the stage, 13:51 off the lead.
The race heads to Champagne country on Thursday.