Chris Froome, right, during the recent Tour de Pologne, his last race as a pro rider considering the serious injuries he has since suffered in a training ride crash (Photo: Andrzej Gucwa)
Chris Froome’s Israel Premier Tech team may have confirmed his litany of broken bones suffered in his recent training ride crash, but it has now emerged the British rider’s most serious injury was not publicised by his employers.
Having crashed, hitting a road sign at speed, Froome was diagnosed with a pericardial rupture; a tear to the sac that surrounds the heart. The injury is life-threatening, though Froome is expected to recover, despite the lengthy recuperation that will be required.
His wife, Michelle, has confirmed he suffered the heart injury, as well as the broken bones, the details of which were already in the public domain. They include a collapsed lung, five broken ribs, and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.
“It was obviously a lot more serious than some broken bones,” Michelle Froome told journalist with The Times newspaper, Matt Lawton. “He’s fine but it’s going to be a long recovery process. He won’t be riding a bike for a while. Chris is happy for you to share this because people need to understand what is going on.”
Froome (40) was airlifted to hospital in Toulon last Wednesday afternoon following a serious training crash. He clipped a kerb while riding at more than 30mph and hit a road sign head-on.
The four-time Tour de France winner, who also won the Vuelta and Giro, last raced at the Tour de Pologne three weeks ago; finishing 85th on the final stage TT and 68th overall. Currently in the final year of his contract with his team, Froome will not recover in time to race again this year.
And that means, unless he finds a new team to start with aged 40 years, Poland looks likely to have been his final race as a pro, though he didn’t know it at the time.
Froome has raced for Israel Premier Tech for the last five years, joining that team after riding for Sky/Ineos for 11 seasons, during which he won the Tour de France four times, the Giro once and the Vuelta twice.
In 2019 he crashed during a recon of stage 4 TT at Critérium du Dauphiné. He came down hard as he neared the end of his recon ride in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes; a gust of wind catching his front wheel and send him into a wall at high speed.
And having been treated and examined by local medics a right femur fracture was diagnosed. He also suffered a broken elbow and broken ribs. His crash were such that he never regained his form after coming back to the sport.
Aside from his major crashes, in 2019 and last week, Froome has also suffered other setbacks. In February of this year, as he was just beginning his season, he crashed at the start of the final stage of UAE Tour and broke his collarbone.
Back in 2019, as he was recovering from his Dauphiné crash, he cut his hand with a knife at home and had to have surgery to put the tendon back together. In November of that year he went under the knife again; this time to have pins and screws removed from his elbow.