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Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has announced his retirement from cycling.
The leading stage racer of his generation, Froome and Team Sky dominated the Tour between 2013 and 2017, collecting four yellow jerseys in five years.
Born in Kenya to British parents, the 41-year-old completed the Grand Tour set with overall victories at the Vuelta a Espana in 2011 and 2017 and Giro d’Italia in 2018, as well as winning two Olympic time trial bronze medals.
Froome has not raced competitively since suffering serious injuries in a training crash last August, and has now officially confirmed the conclusion of his career.
Speaking to Belgian broadcaster Sporza about whether he was retiring, the 41-year-old said: “Unfortunately, there was that crash last summer, that was not the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over.”
Froome’s recent years have been heavily disrupted, with the rider suffering serious injuries in a high-speed crash during the 2019 Criterium du Dauphine and struggling to recapture his Tour-winning form thereafter.
Chris Froome dominated the Tour de France for half a decade (Getty)
He left Sky, now known as Ineos, at the end of the 2020 season for Israel Start-Up Nation, and has not featured at the Tour since his last participation at the 2022 race.
Only four men – Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain – have won more Tour de France titles.
Froome was airlifted to hospital after his solo training crash last summer after sustaining five broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.
It was later revealed by his wife Michelle that the subsequent operation also uncovered a rupture of the pericardium due to blunt chest trauma which was incurred when Froome collided with a road sign at over 30mph.