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news
Chris Froome abandons 2014 Tour de FranceChris Froome out of Tour de France
Chris Froome, defending champion in the Tour de France, has abandoned the race. The Team Sky rider crashed heavily yesterday, sustaining injuries including one to his left wrist, and fell twice more today on rain-soaked roads in northern France on today's Stage 5 from Ypres to Arenberg-Porte de Hainaut.
After his second fall, which came as the peloton sped towards the first of seven cobbled sections on today's route, Froome looked in severe pain and was clearly in no position to get back on his bike, instead climbing into the team car, the defence of his title over.
It’s more than a decade since it last rained here on the day of the Queen of the Classics, held in April each year. The forecast for today, however, had been for heavy rain and that’s how it turned out, with organsisers deciding to cut two of the planned nine sectors of pave – neither of them among the more difficult, admittedly – ahead of the start this morning.
Froome’s defence of his title came to an end shortly before the Carrefour de l’Arbre, the first of the remaining seven sections. The 29-year-old had possibly fractured his left wrist yesterday – x-rays taken last evening proved inconclusive – and took to the start this morning with splints on both wrists and handlebars heavily strapped to try and soften the impact of the cobbles.
He never made it that far. Crashing early on as a result of rain-soaked roads, ripping the right-hand side of his bibshorts and losing his race number, 1, denoting his status as defending champion, he came down heavily again with around 60km of the 152.5km stage which crossed some of the key battlefields of World War I.
Following that conflict, when a journalist from l’Auto, the newspaper that organised Paris-Roubaix at the time, headed north from Paris in 1919 to see whether the race could be held again on the battle-ravaged landscape, he described it in one word – “l’Enfer” – thereby giving the race its other nickname, “l’Enfer du Nord” or “the Hell of the North.”
While today’s route had just seven cobbled sections compared to the 27 that feature in the Spring Classic, seldom in recent years has the one-day race lived up to that nickname as much as this afternoon in the Tour de France is turning out to be.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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81 comments
At least Froome can now nick Wiggo's place in the Commonwealth Games team
Ah yes, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité et Wiggo pour trois etapes".
Right up there with clean water and education for me.
You could always have gone to the National Championships, or up to the Commonwealth Games?
Is it just me, but when I look at the froome first crash, which is what caused the wrist issue and contributed to him pulling out yesterday as he couldn't handle his bike properly, that he was caught half wheeling in the peloton, so when the rider moved to the right he was taken down. I think this school boy error is route cause of his abandon.
It's a racing peloton of 200 riders, not a bloody club run!
People are constantly moving up, down, through and around the bunch! At some point yes, of course you're going to be half wheeling, bumping elbows and knees, clashing bars, overtaking, being overtaken, being pushed off your line....
Maybe you should offer your services to Team Sky as a skills coach as you're clearly an exceptional bike handler, better than all the riders in the Tour...
Froomes stage 4 crash was shit... it wasn't a lack of skill on his part, it was a Bretagne whatever rider who deviated massively off his line. No one could account for that happening.
I wonder if that chap feels a bit bad now?
No, just noting that some out-of-the-ordinary performances are overlooked, while others seem to be used as 'evidence' against a rider just because someone don't like them.
Your reference to 'steak' suggests that you believe Froome to be using something, while making no notice of the fact that another climber was putting in an unexpectedly good performance on a flat stage.
Why make insinuations against one rider, but not another?
Armchair DS-ing; isn't that one of the great joys of watching cycling? Indeed one of the joys of many a sport. Done with respect, it's great.
No real surprise to me that Nibali did well yesterday. his bike handling skills are second to none out of the GC guys. i was surprised that Contador didn't do better.
'Why make insinuations against one rider, but not another?'
why not?
If you can't see there's anything inherently wrong in that, or indeed taking sections of my post out of context, then go ahead.
I think it's really refreshing to see a stage where it's not all about watts/kg, power meters and all that bollox but who can actually ride a bike in less than perfect conditions.. Well done Nibbles.
Thanks. It's so difficult to know where to draw the line. If you wanted some comment on Nibali too, then why not various others? Why is two better than one? Why not seventeen? It all seems a bit arbitrary. If you could provide further guidelines, that'd be great.
It's harsh to blame Brailsford though. I expect he would have liked to have a reserve GC contender up his sleeve for the very reasons you state. However Wiggo and Froome have pretty well demonstrated that they can't work together. They may smile and say otherwise but there is bad blood. Brailsford could really sensibly only pick one of them and have a functioning team and he picked the reigning TDF champ.
So basically you're saying that an elite pro cyclist with 7 years of career under his belt. Winner of TdF, runner up in TdF, winner of Critérium du Dauphiné (2013)
Tour de Romandie (2013, 2014) Critérium International (2013) Tour of Oman (2013, 2014) etc can't ride a bike very well.
I am not sure I am buying that.
Yes, I agree your targeting of one individual without evidence is abitrary, but I wouldn't ask you to over-compensate by making up things about all the other riders too as you'd be there all day.
Guidelines? How about: if you have facts- say so. If you don't - then don't.
Easy really, I'm surprised you needed it spelt out but I'm glad that I can help.
Tbh riding pave is all about power and bike handling of which nibbles has both in abundance so you are partly right .....I still can't believe he was 500 to 1 for the stage
Couple of points about Nibali. He isn't a pure climber - look at his results in Milan-San Remo, year in, year out.
He's one of the best riders in the world in filthy conditions. His team undertook several recces of this stage, clearly had a plan and executed it to perfection.
He alone of the GC contenders had the 'palle' to take the two most difficult stages of the opening week of the race by the scruff of the neck and he's been rewarded handsomely.
Of course, he could always be doping on that new drug people are talking about - you know, the one that gives you an unfair advantage by helping you stay upright in the wet
Been doing this too long to ever be surprised by anything that comes out eventually about any rider, but playing the tactical game better than your rivals does not necessarily equal doping
I too was looking forward to a Froome/Contador showdown, but it could so easily have been nullified by them marking each other until the TT. We now have a finely poised race which Bertie can only win by going on the rampage in the mountains
.
Froome has just posted on Twitter: "MRIs done, confirmed fractures to the left wrist & right hand. Time for some R&R..."
Looks like he's out of action for a while then, no wonder he didn't climb back on.
You'd need to be hard as nails just to wipe your arse!
Two leaders never works? What about 2012 when Sky got first and second - with Wiggo and Froome? Or 1986, when Lemond won and his teammate Hinault came second?
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