Tour de France winner Chris Froome suffers several fractures post crash

Chris Froome

Saint-Etienne-a-Arnes (France): Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has undergone surgery and was in intensive care on Thursday a day after slamming into a wall at high speed and suffering multiple fractures. The force of the impact during practice ahead of the fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine race in central France fractured his pelvis, right femur, and left him with broken ribs and a broken right elbow.

"He's not in great shape. There are crashes and bad crashes and this was a bad crash," said his Ineos team principal Dave Brailsford. He said the Briton had undergone initial surgery which had gone well and "will remain in hospital for at least two days in Saint-Etienne" before a decision on further treatment, possibly back home in Britain, is taken.

Focus on recovery
Brailsford said Froome had no hope of competing in the Tour de France next month and his full focus was now on recovery after the horror crash which happened on a downhill stretch of road in the Loire region. Froome was riding with Dutch teammate Wout Poels when he lost control of his bike and slammed into the wall of a house at full speed.

Freak accident
"We have had a look at his data, he went from 54kmph to a dead stop," Brailsford said. The accident happened in the village of Saint-Andre d'Apchon. Froome had taken his hands off the handlebars in order to blow his nose "and the wind's taken his front wheel and he's hit a wall," Brailsford added. Following treatment on site Froome was airlifted to intensive care at Saint-Etienne hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.

Froome's wife Michelle Cound tweeted that she was on her way to join him there and asked fans to keep the rider "in your thoughts." Brailsford said that Froome had worked "incredibly hard to get in fantastic shape and had been on track for the Tour" which starts on July 6 from Brussels. The Criterium du Dauphine represents a full dress rehearsal and Froome was doing well, in eighth spot before the crash.

Froome will return in six months: Surgeon

Chris Froome has undergone a successful four-hour operation following a crash and could be back racing in six months, his surgeon said yesterday. "The operation was long, almost four hours, but it went very, very well," said Remi Philippot, chief surgeon for sports trauma at Saint-Etienne hospital. " The impact was at around 50 kmph, with very little body protection, causing a high-energy impact," added Philippot.

Chris Froome is a British road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Ineos. He has won several stage races, including four editions of the Tour de France (in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017), the Giro d'Italia in 2018 and the Vuelta a Espana in 2017. Froome has won two Olympic bronze medals in road time trials, in 2012 and 2016, and also took bronze in the 2017 World Championships.

With inputs from AFP

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