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.
81 thoughts on “Chris Froome out of Tour de France”
Meanwhile, a guy who has won
Meanwhile, a guy who has won the tour AND did very well on the cobbles just a few months ago (admittedly he was lighter then) is sat at home twiddling his thumbs…
notfastenough
And….? This gives Richie Porte a great chance to take a victory, something he richly deserves, and remain in Team sky. I am not the greatest Wiggins fan for sure but I do admire his talent as much as I hate his attitude but either way this TDF is not made for Wiggins with some big mountains and one time trial stage. He would never win.
Would be great to see Richie Porte take a win really.
Gutted for Froome.
Gutted for Froome.
Shocking, must get home and
Shocking, must get home and watch highlights!
Very surprised and can’t
Very surprised and can’t imagine how that it’s possible to crash that much (seriously bad luck). Can’t help but think of Wiggo and how a great “2nd” choice he would be right now.
On a personal level, and for
On a personal level, and for British Cycling generally I am gutted for Froome, don’t get me wrong, but karma… its a bitch innit?
To me this was kind of inevitable the moment Mr Brailsford took the decision to leave Wiggins at home… if it wasn’t a fall, it might have been illness, mechanical whatever, leaving a perfectly good plan B at home was risky.
Also, Sky have had two tours where not only their A plan, but also their plan B has got through the event unscathed, so simply playing the odds suggests that this was a more likely even this year.
A real shame, I hope Mr Froome recovers quickly and can tear the backside out of the Vuelta as I can’t see Wiggins going for it.
A great shame that he will be
A great shame that he will be missing in the mountains, though I expect to see a great battle between Contador and Nibali all the same. I’m still certain that if Wiggins was in the team as a super domestique/back up he may well have excelled at the cobbles but I couldn’t see him keeping up with the other GC riders without Froome this time round to tow him, that’s not to suggest he isn’t a very good climber he just doesn’t have that natural acceleration to attack. It will be interesting to see if Sky now have a crack at stage wins and let some of those riders used to riding in a very rigid domestique role giving a chance to have a go, Bernie and Thomas could have a go today.
I can’t help remembering how
I can’t help remembering how bad Wiggins was in similar conditions in the Giro and off the back in Florence. Maybe they don’t ride in the rain enough?
Since then Wiggo won the time
Since then Wiggo won the time trial in pouring rain at the tour of Britain and then became this years TT champ in appalling rain!
Fantastic news. Shame Wiggo
Fantastic news. Shame Wiggo wasn’t around to help Sir Dave out. What a ridiculous decision.
Who will step up – Porte or
Who will step up – Porte or Thomas? – have either got French dual-citizenship, haha! Got a pic of Thomas as he sped past at top of Holme Moss, he looks super-skinny!!
Froome hasn’t been able to stay upright since Jose Brailsford said he could win the Tour with a Frenchman on a grocers bike!
Come on Bertie!
Surely plan B is
Surely plan B is Porte??
Anyway, I hope Bernie or G can go for the stage today!
There’s always going to be
There’s always going to be people who will say ‘ahhhh, that Wiggo decision ain’t looking that great now is it?’ but they wouldn’t have been as vocal of how good the decision was if Froome had been fine and defended his title. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but at the end of the day Dave B made the decision and I expect he’d probably still defend it even now.
It’s a shame Froome’s out, more a victim of weather than cobbles (he’d not got to them yet), it’s been carnage so far with fallers everywhere.
Hope he recovers well and is back on the bike soon.
That’s all very well – but a
That’s all very well – but a lot of people predicted exactly this. Wiggin’s’ experience on the cobbles could have helped calm the team down, and maybe he would have had a bit more presence in the peloton.
Froome’s suffered from being out of position a lot – compare contador, whose team keeps him right out of trouble at the front, Froome always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – as much by judgement as luck? He doesn’t seem to like riding in the peloton.
Oh no I’m gutted for him ..
Oh no I’m gutted for him .. Crash Froome the return
Really bad news. Unlucky
Really bad news. Unlucky Froome. Still don’t think wiggo would have been the saviour of sky if he was there though.
cant believe people are
cant believe people are having a pop at Froome. Wiggins this, wiggins that….Froome fell twice before the cobbles so what difference would it make having a cobbles man in the team – none and Wiggins is not in the same class as Froome, Nibali, Contador etc etc.
I hope he makes a full recovery and kicks everyones arse in the Vuelta.
stumps wrote:cant believe
Well said.
stumps wrote:cant believe
Wiggins out time trialed all of these riders.. what do you mean by ‘not in the same class?’
7thGalaxy wrote:stumps
Wiggins is a brilliant TT rider but he cant keep up with the likes of Froome et al in the mountains and when he won the tour in 2012 he had Froome to help him, Berti was banned (i think) and Nibs was well out of form. Nibs was third overall 6 min + behind but 5 mins 45 was from the 2 TT’s.
So he won the tour of cali but was dropped on the big climb by riders who are not even in the same class as the big GC boys. People need to get real and accept that Wiggins, although still a good rider, is not GC material for a GT.
stumps wrote:7thGalaxy
Wiggins is a brilliant TT rider but he cant keep up with the likes of Froome et al in the mountains and when he won the tour in 2012 he had Froome to help him, Berti was banned (i think) and Nibs was well out of form. Nibs was third overall 6 min + behind but 5 mins 45 was from the 2 TT’s.
So he won the tour of cali but was dropped on the big climb by riders who are not even in the same class as the big GC boys. People need to get real and accept that Wiggins, although still a good rider, is not GC material for a GT.— stumps
I’d give up fella ….I’ve had the exact argument and made the same points you just did with members of my club …..a lot of ppl have what I like to call Brad Blinkers it seems ~X(
stumps wrote:
Wiggins is a
Hmm, I contest this… you don’t win the tour unless you are a GT contender. You don’t finish 3rd in another tour de france and indeed a Vuelta unless you are a GT contender.
No one flukes a tour win.
Yes, you can say the stars align and you have a magic year that makes you a winner, but there are actually very very few tour winners, or indeed winners of GT’s across the board, by doing so once, you are immedaitely a contender for other events.
I think we all accept that Wiggins is not as explosive or natural climber as other GT contenders… so what, he has demonstrated that this is merely a challenge that can be overcome.
I think your view of the tour of California is skewed. He got gapped at the top of a climb that he’d ridden at the front of for much of the climb… it was a mis-calculation. The rest of that race was won at a canter.
As for Froome pulling Wiggins up the climbs in 2012, I would encourage you to watch the footage again and see how much pulling he did.
Froome is clearly the better climber, but Wiggins is every bit a match for Nibali in the hills and I would be happy to put a fiver that our winner is Italian this year.
7thGalaxy wrote:stumps
I believe you answered your own question…. wiggo can only win GTs when he can put time into the above riders via a number of ITTs ….
The grumbling suspicions were
The grumbling suspicions were that Froome drove the decision to bin Wiggins off this years tour, what comes after pride again?
The team should have been built for Froome to fight for GC, but Wiggins should have been in for days like today, as mentioned above a lot of other GC contenders looked far more comfortable, Froome was always going to be jittery, hence he needed extra protection.
I know some are going to think that it’s easy to be wise after the event but I’ve been saying exactly this for ages and I’m not alone. The overwhelming response has always been “Well, Brailsford knows what he is doing”, and I am not going to dispute that, but he’s still human, he can make mistakes and I always thought this was glaring mistake. Was I right? Possibly, but I’m not as naive as to not fully understand that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
In my view, bringing Wiggins would have been a better plan B than Porte and it would have been better PR for the team. I honestly can’t see Porte getting on or anywhere near the podium, not that I am suggesting Wiggins would be guaranteed a ‘step’.
farrell wrote: I honestly
I make you right there. However today’s stage is really shaking things up, with Porte putting big time into Contador at the moment!! Can’t wait to see this stage. If Porte podiums in Paris, big questions will be asked of Sky!
Well, well, well
It was
Well, well, well
It was debated and debated on the internet….
and in the end, the internet armchair experts called it right.
Sky would have been OK if they had won… but now – we have to look at who they left on the bench and ask questions.
Of course – on the flip side, Wiggo rarely goes well in the wet either – and I suspect the decision to leave him at home was only partly to do with Froome, but more to do with the form of Contador (as in, Wiggo was not the right ‘plan B’)
Must be Mad wrote:Of course –
I’ve seen people repeating this on various social media platforms as truth and fact, as though Wiggins is actually part Mogwai who mustn’t be allowed to get wet or something.
I’d bet my left bollock to London that if you can become a National Champion in the wet, you must be doing something pretty damn well.
The British summer of
The British summer of sporting misery gets worse :”( 2 years ago we were full of ourselves; even coming up with reasons why the Aussies were so bad at sport. Oh well, ‘it’s only a game’. Take note Brazil, you’ll get over it :))
Right, time for Froome to get
Right, time for Froome to get on with preparation for the Vuelta a Espana! B-)
McVittees wrote:Right, time
A straight punch up between him and Quintana?
Yes please!
Given Wiggins’ struggle in
Given Wiggins’ struggle in the Giro in 2013 and Froome all over the place today, do you think that Sky include bike handling as part of their ‘marginal gains’ drive?
only1redders wrote:Given
Don’t forget Thomas – he’ll be falling as soon as things head down hill!
Christ, I can’t believe
Christ, I can’t believe people are pulling out ‘I told you so’. Last year Wiggins wasn’t the plan B, Sky did fine, this year Wiggins isn’t the plan B and Sky aren’t doing fine. They’d have been building their team around assumption of failure, with a rider who climbs alright but no where near the level of the other GC contenders. They’ll put Porte up for GC and he’s ahead of Contador and can climb reasonably well.
And given the sheer number of riders who went down, who’s to say that any plan B rider wouldn’t have avoided the same fate? It was a day for the A+ level bike handlers.
I was in general agreement
I was in general agreement with everything you said until this…
‘no where near’ is inaccurate and inflammatory in my opinion. A ‘more limited’ climber is a more accurate description… Wiggins is one of the very best climbers in the world and with regards to TT/climbing ratio, 3rd only to Froome and Contador.
That’s fair, he’s a very good
That’s fair, he’s a very good climber (much better than alright so I’ll hold my hands up to that), but he’s not looked amazing on climbs this last year, he was solid at the Tour of Cali but Contador dropped him by quite a margin at one stage. If there was more than one ITT I think Wiggins would have been a good choice because we know he can put the pain into the other GC guys.
Proof! A double barrel
Proof! A double barrel shotgun is better than a single one.
Stop talking about Wiggins
Stop talking about Wiggins and start talking about Nibali. He’s the only GC contender who regularly races the spring classics. He’s bust his arse learning to race on cold wet cobbles with the hard men in Belgium every spring while Froome and the other GC riders are wanking into their power meters in Tenerife.
This is the result and it’s not bad luck or good luck. It’s proper old fashioned bike racing. Those who have focused on being athletes first and bike riders second have been cruelly exposed.
sponican wrote:Stop talking
I don’t recall Nibali ever racing any cobbled classics.
sponican wrote:Stop talking
He’s done Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallone but never has he ridden Flanders or PR. He normally does Trentino and LBL with the odd MSR.
Oh well. Not being a
Oh well. Not being a particular Froome fan and disappointed that Sky couldn’t deliver 2 ex winners to this British Grand Depart, I wanted Nibbles to win this year. Looks promising… although with Froome out I might be switching support to Porte.
The arguments above are interesting, apparently Bradley only won because Froome towed him round, but Froome having the support of Porte is completely different? Apparently Porte is good enough to podium too? It follows that if we had Wiggo with Porte in support in the mountains Sky would still be formidable, but we don’t. Richie is all* Sky have got now…
Speaking of all round bike racers, it was worth going to watch just for Jens on day one 😀 and on the TV I loved watching Sagan working through the bunch yesterday nippy slick stuff. Le Tour is big enough to manage with a few retirements.
*no disrespect. We’ll see what he or G can do.
jimmy ray will – your right
jimmy ray will – your right about Wiggins and his 3rd places at the Vuelta and the Tour but that was a few years ago and i just dont think he has it in him now to be a genuine GC contender, a bit like Evans.
I still love him to bits, he’s been brilliant for British Cycling and on his day the best TT’er in the world, but the one week tours and, as shown earlier this year, the one day classics are where he should concentrate on in my honest opinion.
Plans of mice and men etc. If
Plans of mice and men etc. If it were that easy to predict winners then there would be no bookmakers. Certainly Froome was unfortunate yesterday but today….it seemed inevitable to me that he would go down again, given the weather, parcours and his injuries. Tough for him to swallow but crashing is part of racing. Maybe he’ll fancy a crack at La Vuelta…
Froome didn’t even make the
Froome didn’t even make the cobbles.
Porte should be good for podium, I’ve felt Niballi was favourite for the overall for a while. Froome just hasn’t looked convincing all season. Pressure/nerves or just a poor streak. Doesn’t really matter now.
Maybe Froome should just get
Maybe Froome should just get his dad to teach him how to ride a bike.
I was supporting Nibbles from the start but it will be disappointing if he doesn’t get some stiff competition.
no-one will be as gutted as
no-one will be as gutted as Wiggins,
to deny someone the opportunity to race as they are in a small window of optimum fitness and mental state, on the off chance that the other fella on form the same time who had also peaked…..would not fall off/get a bug/bomb in a time trial seemed too ridiculous for words
its the tour for god sake….anything can happen in 3 weeks, and counting their chickens has spunked away the chance of a lifetime for someone else……they should have both raced
sorry for froome
sorry for wiggo
brailsford you are a plumb!!!
Pinstriper wrote:no-one will
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.
Never got on with the
Never got on with the smugness of SKY, but I have to say that Froome looked a broken man when he was getting in the car.
Hopefully Nibali has found his form and Contador will have to fight for his win.
Look forward to seeing Froome at La Vuelta.
If only Geraint Thomas was a
If only Geraint Thomas was a bit more explosive in the mountains. He put in an awesome ride bringing Porte home.
I don’t think Brailsford
I don’t think Brailsford looked upset that he hadn’t bought Wiggins. Sometimes there’s more to it than just the riding. Team work and team spirit count for a lot.
I think you have to say that a lot of the Tour teams missed a step with today’s stage. It really did throw up Classics weather, but a lot of the riders looked uncomfortable riding it. That may have been the case without the rain in any respect. With or without Froome’s fall you have to say that Froome would have struggled as much as Contador, and I think there was a tacit recognition of that given he got off the bike.
Good luck to him though. I hope he can build for the Vuelta. You sort of feel that Nibali has this sewn up already now. He looks composed, confident and relaxed. Very impressed with him so far.
I was really looking forward
I was really looking forward to the battle between Contador and Froome. :”(
Nibali has it sewn up? Don’t
Nibali has it sewn up? Don’t think so personally. Did you see Dauphiné? Long way to go. Lets hope for some almighty battles in the stages left!
Hoester wrote:Nibali has it
No-one has a Grand Tour sewn up in the first week.
Personally I think it’s very well balanced now. Contador’s capable of making time on Nibali in the mountains and in the ITT, but how much remains to be seen. Plus the fact that contador and froome won’t be marking each other over everything bigger than a road bridge will make for much more interesting racing. Contador *has* to attack now, two and a half minutes is a lot of time. Plus Talansky, Valverde and VDB are still right in the mix. two flat stages for everyone to have a breather and then three in the Vosges that’ll be a real test of who’s brought their A game. Can’t wait.
Porte looks good for a podium
Porte looks good for a podium place with Thomas and Nieve as lieutenants. I think the latter in particular could really pull something out of the bag for his new team leader.
Bummed about Froome. It’s a wicked, wicked sport we follow, isn’t it? ~X(
I remember when Pinarello
I remember when Pinarello announced the new Dogma that it was supposedly “16% more balanced”… Sadly that doesn’t seem to be balanced enough…
Not a Frome fan either after
Not a Frome fan either after reading the book, and situation caused in Sky. Sky should have been able to put their two best riders in the squad for exactly this reason. Porte is good but not as good as Wiggins – full stop.
Frankly I feel Brailsford denied the UK its right to see Wiggins riding in the UK on three stages because he wasn’t able to manage them.
A sad day for the UK through the failure of three of supposedly UK’s finest sportspeople to be able to work as a team.
macrophotofly wrote:
I wasn’t aware this was in our rights, I’ll bear that in mind if I’m ever arrested.
macrophotofly wrote:Frankly I
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?
‘Froome just hasn’t looked
‘Froome just hasn’t looked convincing all season. Pressure/nerves or just a poor steak.’
FTFY.
andyp wrote:’Froome just
So, a climber unusually beats a number of highly experienced classics riders, and yet people are still obsessed with outing Froome as a doper….?
Are you suggesting Nibali was
Are you suggesting Nibali was on the juice yesterday?
andyp wrote:Are you
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?
Having a sore wrist on the
Having a sore wrist on the cobbles must be painful. Maybe Froome should have got some advice from his team-mate Thomas “We are allowed the normal painkillers – ibuprofen and paracetamol – and a few coffees in the morning helps. Then it comes down to the whole mental side of not giving up. At times in Corsica it felt like I could not pedal”
Ah excellent, all the
Ah excellent, all the armchair DS’s are out in force. All the expert managers who know each and every rider.
The crash happened before the peloton had even seen a cobble so to say that the cause was bad bike handling on coobbles is just rubbish. 200 nervous jittery bike riders, a threatening parcours and bad weather, everyone trying to be in the front 20 so the pace was averaging near 50kph which is insanely fast.
People were crashing left right and centre, Chris was just unlucky.
As for the “there should have been 2 leaders”, that’s also a bad idea, it never works. You build a team round ONE leader. And not sure where the idea that Brad would have done any better is coming from; he did one good ride on dry cobbles a few months ago and that’s it, he’s hardly renowned for amazing bike handling in the wet himself (cough *Giro* cough).
It’s just bad luck – it’s very disappointing but Sky were in the same boat when Wiggins crashed out with a broken collarbone a few years ago; no-one was shouting then that they should have had a second leader or a Plan B. You have your Plan A and then you trust to luck. That’s bike racing.
crazy-legs wrote:Ah
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?
At least Froome can now nick
At least Froome can now nick Wiggo’s place in the Commonwealth Games team 😉
Is it just me, but when I
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.
Mpittick wrote:Is it just me,
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… ~X(
Mpittick wrote:Is it just me,
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.
Froomes stage 4 crash was
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?
Armchair DS-ing; isn’t that
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
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
‘Why make insinuations against one rider, but not another?’
why not?
andyp wrote:’Why make
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.
JeevesBath wrote:andyp
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.— andyp
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.
andyp wrote:JeevesBath
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.— JeevesBath
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.— andyp
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.
I think it’s really
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.
banjokat wrote:I think it’s
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 8}
Couple of points about
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
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
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.
nicholassmith wrote:Froome
You’d need to be hard as nails just to wipe your arse!