Chris Froome’s Tour de France Maillot Jaune title defence is over as he withdrew from the race in tragic circumstances after crashing twice during the fifth stage yesterday.
Briton Froome, who won the 100th Tour de France in dominant circumstances last year, including a memorable stage win on Mont Ventoux, crashed in the previous stage, also in wet weather conditions, but soldiered on. As it turned out his wrist was injured and as he crashed again with under 70km of the next day’s stage to go Froome was too badly injured to continue and had to climb into a Sky support car, withdrawing himself from the race.
Chris Froome then tweeted: “Devastated to have to withdraw from this years TDF. Injured wrist and tough conditions made controlling my bike near to impossible.”
Going into the stage Froome was just two seconds off Yellow Jersey holder Vincenzo Nibali and had left himself perfectly poised to pounce in the mountains and take the race lead from there. Everything was going so well. It looked like he would take his second consecutive General Classification win at the Tour de France and Britain’s third in a row in the competition, but fortune did not favour Chris Froome in this dangerous stage. He had been given the all-clear to continue racing after his scare in the previous stage but the second crash was too much for him.
This Tour de France has not boded well for Great British fans so far: “Manx Missile” and sprinting legend Mark Cavendish had to withdraw himself after a crash in the buildup to the sprint finish of the first stage in Yorkshire ended in a dislocated shoulder and ligament damage for the 2011 Green Jersey winner.
One of Chris Froome’s Maillot Jaune rivals Alberto Contador offered his support for the Brit, tweeting:
“From here I want to give support to Chris Froome, months of work and everything gone. A big loss for the Tour. See you here next year.”
The stage itself ended in victory for Belkin rider Lars Boom, with Vincenzo Nibali staying in the race lead.
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