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news
Chris Froome 2025 UAE Tour crash (@CyclingLegend_ on Twitter)Is this the end of his racing career? Chris Froome suffers broken collarbone at UAE Tour crash, denting hopes for one last Vuelta rodeo
Chris Froome’s ambition of ending his career where it took off — at the Vuelta a España — has taken a massive dent after the British rider suffered a broken collarbone as a result of a mass crash at the final stage of the UAE Tour, with his bike reduced to a terrible wreck.
After just eight kilometres of racing, there was a mass crash in which several riders went down, including Bahrain Victorous’ Rainer Kepplinger and Israel-Premier Tech’s Chris Froome. However, unlike the Austrian who went on to recover from the crash and finish 15th in the stage, the four-time Tour de France winner wasn’t as lucky, instead having to abandon due to injury.
His team has now confirmed that he suffered a fractured right collarbone. “Chris Froome was forced to abandon the UAE Tour following a crash during the final stage,” Israel-Premier Tech wrote in a statement. “A CT scan has confirmed a distal non-displaced fracture of his right clavicle (collarbone). Chris will be assessed tomorrow by an orthopaedic surgeon in Dubai to determine whether surgery will be required to stabilise the fracture.”
🇦🇪UAE Tour - stage 7
De nombreux coureurs veulent prendre part à l'échappée du jour. On voit notamment à l'avant Alexey Lutsenko et Pierre André Côté (Israël Premier Tech).
Pendant ce temps une chute intervient dans le peloton avec Joshua Tarling (Ineos-Grenadiers) 2ème du… pic.twitter.com/8gktfPd1PQ— CyclingRag (@SebastienFlanq1) February 23, 2025
Although footage of the crash wasn’t shown during the broadcast, with cameras only picking up the scene of the fall after the riders had gone down, images have revealed severe damage sustained by Froome’s Factor Ostro Vam, with the Black Inc front wheel broken into two pieces and the tube having come apart.
The extent of the injury and the recovery and rehabilitation period is yet to be determined, however, fans are worried that this could very well be the final race of Froome’s career, with the 40-year-old touted to retire at the end of the 2025 season.
In December, he had suggested that 2025 could be his final season, while also expressing his desire to ride one last Grand Tour, especially the Vuelta since it would be a “nice way to close the circle”, having won the race 13 years ago with Team Sky and kickstarting a career that would embed him not only as a British cycling great but also an overall icon of the sport.
“Next year [2025] would potentially be my last season racing and to finish at the Vuelta could be a really nice way to close the circle, having started at the Vuelta, to finish at the Vuelta as well. That could be very special,” he said.
“I think it’s time. Next year I'm going to be 40. It was always my goal to be racing until the age of 40, so I’m getting closer to that goal. I can be very happy with everything that I’ve been lucky to achieve in the sport.”
Chris Froome, 2024 Arctic Race of Norway (ARN/Aurelien Vialatte)
Since his terrible crash into a wall at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné, Froome has found himself riddled with numerous controversies (such as his bike setup woes, team rift drama, equipment blaming, and of course, the infamous disc brake rants) as well as further injuries.
After a lengthy recovery, Froome had to deal with a knee injury due to “overtraining” ahead of the 2022 season. In the same year, he was the victim of a dooring incident while returning home from a training ride, sustaining minor injuries in the crash.
In March last year, his miseries compounded once again, with the veteran rider being forced to abandon the Tirreno-Adriatico after fracturing his wrist. He later described the situation as: “I can’t catch a break”.
Despite having previously indicated otherwise, just a few weeks ago, Froome said that retirement is “not 100 per cent certain” in 2025, saying: “Chances are, yes, I’ll be calling it a day, but I’m just keeping the door open. [I’ll] see how this year goes, see how I’m feeling towards the end of it.”
Could Froome really come back for the Vuelta this year, or maybe even next year for one last hurrah, emulating Sir Mark Cavendish's heroics? Or have we witnessed a rather unceremonious end to the professional cycling career of a living legend? Time will tell…
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
Latest Comments
- Aluminium can 1 hour 39 min ago
Frame weight is about a hundred grams less than a CAAD 12 disc, which can be picked up cheap these days on gumtree. Heck, get the CAAD12 non disc...
- Dnnnnnn 5 hours 33 min ago
You're too kind. They just seem to be unpleasant trolls.
- ktache 6 hours 14 min ago
I realised that the lads crash is a rare set of circumstances, and the numbers in the race would add complexity, but don't smart watches have...
- Jogle 6 hours 28 min ago
And in Southampton today we had another example of those entitled ambulances going through red lights without a care for anyone else!...
- belugabob 7 hours 39 min ago
Because the number of 40% tax payers buying downhill bikes on the scheme, whilst lower rate tax payers (who are more likely to actually cycle to...
- TheBillder 7 hours 42 min ago
The spokes and nipples are not anodised for environmental reasons, but the rims are. Which is a lot more metal. Hmm...
- Zebulebu 8 hours 15 min ago
Yeah, they'll be great after being crushed in your jersey pocket for three hours. ...
- Rendel Harris 8 hours 21 min ago
I'm afraid so, anything operated by TfL apart from the Woolwich ferry and the Silvertown Tunnel bike bus when it opens next month.
- Backladder 9 hours 29 min ago
Its only "meh" because we all experience similar passes every ride, I'm sure if they got their finger out and worked out the distance it would be...
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13 comments
It could not happen to a weirder guy. Born/brought up in Africa. Yet he cycles for Israel, whose government are notorious not only for 75 years of apartheid against the Palestinian people, but are being taken through the international courts on suspicion of or actual genocide. At what point would you say hmm no - God just told me to take off this jersey.
No, he doesn't.
Those Black Inc wheels use a hub design which to me seems unsafe. As you can see on the photos, the hub is still attached to the fork.
The straight pull carbon spokes are held in place using just tension and there is nothing stopping them coming out from either side of the hub flange. An unlucky incident such as hitting a pothole could be enough to knock one out of place. If that happens then the rest will come out as well, as you can see on the photo this clearly happened.
It's not just Black Inc using this kind of hub design, other brands such as Elite wheels do as well. Also not an issue with carbon spokes, just this particular design of hub. For now a more conventional straight pull spoke or j bend one would be the way to go.
As you say, optimised for ease of manufacture, assembly and disassembly- just imagine what fun you could have with hookless rims on this hub.
Indeed, what's to say the safety issue you raise did not contribute to the incident here? Could Froome's fall have been less disastrous if the spokes would've stayed attached to the hub? Pure speculation on my behalf, but I think it could be so.
This is all conjecture but I guess that a more conventional wheel would not have just disintegrated like this one did and although would have been damaged would have given Froome a chance to slow down and come to a stop.
Not suggesting that the hub design might not be flawed in general, but it seems pretty fanciful to imagine it would have affected the outcome of this crash. This was a mass pile up, and can't imagine that damage to the wheel occurring until Frome and his bike were already hitting the deck pretty hard (might even have been caused by another rider landing on top of the wheel).
Had a look at a photo of the hub on their website and I agree that looks completely unsafe. I think it's not unreasonable to expect that our rims remain intact too. I've turned up just after a carbon front wheel disintegrated after hitting a small bump on a bike path. I wouldn't trust many of these "high end" wheels. I reckon there is a good chance "equipment failure" contributued to how bad the crash was, even if it may not have been the cause.
He's been finished since his salbutamol positive. How he conned the salary he's on is beyond me
He won the Giro after that. Strange definition of finished. His career as a winner was finished by the crash in the Dauphiné recon.
Provided it's not a complex fracture he should be able to train in three weeks and race in six, shouldn't be much of a problem to make the Vuelta in twenty-six weeks' time, if he wants to.
His career has been over for a few years.
Longer than that