Britain's four-time champion Chris Froome has been ruled out of the Tour de France after a "very serious" crash.

Team Ineos rider Froome, 34, was taken to hospital with a reported broken femur after crashing before stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine on Wednesday.

"He crashed in the downhill section of the course at high speed. He hit a wall," team principal Dave Brailsford told France Televisions. "It'll take quite a long time before he races again."

The incident took place during a practice ride on Wednesday's 26.1km time-trial course in Roanne, France.

Brailsford said: "The ambulance came quickly. He's been taken care of and waits for a helicopter to be transferred to Lyon or Saint-Etienne.

"It's a very serious accident. Clearly, he won't be at the start of the Tour de France."

Froome was eighth overall in the Criterium after three stages of the eight-day race.

He would have been chasing a record-equalling fifth victory in the Tour, which starts in Brussels on 6 July.

Froome went into last year's race as favourite, holding all three Grand Tour titles, having won the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia.

He finished third as team-mate Geraint Thomas became the third Briton to win the race.

Better his Leg than his head....sad news quality Athlete!

It will be interesting to see how Thomas fares as de facto Leader when the rest of the peloton is not watching what Froome may or may not do each day - Ineos with the defending champion as lead will be severely weakened as a result, Froome has been showing just how good a road manager he is this season especially in the Tour of the Alps when Ineos took the top two places with 2 riders under 24, Froome manages it for them and treated it as training for himself.

Oohhhh. Femur.

Ouch. That's wincing.

Hope he's on the mend soon enough.

The drugs will help take away the pain..

Crikey....femur!! That is not good!!!

This could make winning the Tour difficult even for Froomey.
Hope he's back OK for next season.

Sad news indeed, what a brilliant cyclist he is a shame he wont be going for the equalling record, still some top British riders competing in the TDF, so lets hope we can win it once more.

Look on the bright side; another bloody cyclist off the road.

Fractured Femur, Elbow and Ribs - riding into a wall at over 60kmph during training this morning

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I’m not sure I’d try to take my hands off the bars to blow my nose at 15kph, never mind 60!

I’m sure there’ll be some top quality medicinal products he can take to take the edge off things without blowing his samples......

Pretty gutted about this.

But come on ‘G’

The odds are in turmoil. Where’s the smart money going. Personally think G’s a bit fat for this year. Any news on Bernal and dumoulin.

Intensive care now . Not good news

Multiple fractures and he's 'not in good shape'.
Worrying.

He was going pretty quick when the crash happened.
Hope things turn out ok for him.

Garnerssoap wrote:The odds are in turmoil. Where’s the smart money going. Personally think G’s a bit fat for this year. Any news on Bernal and dumoulin.

Dumoulin is riding the Dauphine, he came second in the time trial yesterday but nowhere near the GC.

Just listening to Brailsford on BBC1 - sounds like a shocking accident...hitting a brick wall at 40mph - broken leg, broken ribs, broken hip, multiple injuries, he won’t be racing for a while. Get better soon CF.

The usual stupid comments as on many threads.

Sounds like he is in a really bad way, this could well end his career, he will be mentally scarred as well as his horrific injuries, i sincerely hope he recovers quickly but i cant see him coming back to what is an amazing athlete.

Yes, age is not on his side when it comes to recovering from a serious injury.

Brailsford also said he had broke his hip on the 5 live podcast
If he has fractured his neck of femur (most common weak point) he will likely need a hip replacement. If that's the case it could be a very long road to recovery.


I fell of my bike in January going 35mph round a corner. I was fortunate that I just smashed into the road and not a wall but bloody hell it hurt a lot. Whacked my elbow, hip and knee. Also hit the back of my head which caused a bit of whip lash. The road rash on my elbow was almost to the bone. Fortunately my bike was fine, my body protected it from the bang as it landed on top of me.

Mentally I still haven't recovered and I am a lot slower/shakey going round corners at any speed. Probably a good thing though

In better news for Froome - looks like he will have another Grand Tour to his palmires - The 2011 Vuelta

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Froome is done, he will come back to race but he’ll never win. There’s too much talent up and coming. He’s destined to morph into the Ineos management.

G will be riding this year and then he’ll follow Rod over to the new team.

Teo and Bernal are the future in Ineos those two are going to rule the world stage for the next 10 years! Moscon will take the Classics.

Froome is a good road captain but there’s no one better than Rowe. He’s the GOAT.

Don't forget Sivakov - I fear Moscon may be the new Poels - shame given his talent

I think Sivakov will move to ensure he gets an annual crack at two Grand Tours rather than one.