Chris Froome has been ruled out of next month’s Tour de France with a suspected broken femur after a high-speed crash during the Criterium du Dauphine.
Team Ineos confirmed the British rider had hit a wall during a reconnaissance before stage four and had withdrawn from the high-profile race that begins on 6 July.
Team boss Sir Dave Brailsford told cyclingnews.com: “It sounds like he was at the foot of the descent, and it’s obviously very gusty today, and he took his hands off the bars to blow his nose and the wind has taken his front wheel.
“He’s hit a wall at 60kph or something like that, he’s got a bad fracture, he’s badly injured and it sounds like he has a fracture of the femur, to be confirmed.”
Froome’s wife Michelle said he was involved in a “high-speed crash” while scoping out the route for Wednesday’s time trial around Roanne in central France.
Writing on her husband’s Twitter account, she said: “Chris is on his way to hospital after a high-speed crash during the route recon earlier this afternoon, injuries are yet to be confirmed.”
Froome was eighth in the overall classification after three stages of the eight-day race, just 24 seconds behind leader Dylan Teuns.
The Tour is only three and a half weeks away and Froome’s preparations this season had been built around peaking for the race as he looked to join an elite group of just four riders to have won five Tour titles.
Source : Sky News : http://news.sky.com/story/chris-froome-out-of-tour-de-france-with-suspected-broken-leg-after-crash-11740506
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