{"id":115729,"date":"2025-09-03T02:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115729\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:59:06","slug":"chris-froome-sustained-life-threatening-injury-to-his-heart-in-training-crash-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115729\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Froome sustained life-threatening injury to his heart in training crash | Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Froome sustained a life-threatening injury to his heart in the training crash in France last week that left him in hospital with a broken back and broken ribs. The four-time Tour de France winner also sustained a pericardial rupture, a tear to the sac that surrounds the heart, in the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously a lot more serious than some broken bones,\u201d his wife, Michelle Froome, told the Times<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s fine, but it\u2019s going to be a long recovery process. He won\u2019t be riding a bike for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Froome was airlifted to the Sainte\u2011Anne military hospital, in the Var, the highest\u2011level trauma centre in that part of France. His team, Israel-Premier Tech, had stated initially that the 40-year-old had sustained a collapsed lung, five broken ribs and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.<\/p>\n

Last spring, Froome was reluctant to speculate on his retirement date. \u201cI haven\u2019t 100% decided that I\u2019ll be retiring at the end of this year,\u201d he said. \u201cChances are, yes, I\u2019ll be calling it a day, but I\u2019m just keeping the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the gravity of the injuries he suffered in the crash has now increased speculation that he may soon announce his retirement from racing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Dutch sprinter Olav Kooij, teammate of Jonas Vingegaard at Visma-Lease a Bike, overhauled Norway\u2019s Tord Gudmestad to win the opening stage of the 2025 men\u2019s Tour of Britain<\/a> in Southwold.<\/p>\n

Olav Kooij (left) edges out Tord Gudmestad on the line in Southwold. Photograph: Stephen Pond\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kooij, who took four stage wins in the 2023 edition of the race, picked up where he left off on the Suffolk coast, but only after overhauling a violent acceleration from the Decathlon\u2011AG2R La Mondiale rider.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of headwind after the last corner and a little rise as well,\u201d Kooij said. \u201cIt was a bit of a waiting game, to make the last push in the final few metres. Gudmestad was really strong, but he was pushing into the wind and I had some slipstream from him. I had enough in the legs to get past him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kooij has already set his sights on adding to his British win tally. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll beat getting four wins like I did a few years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Geraint Thomas, riding his final professional race, almost missed the start to his own farewell party after his flight to Stansted airport, late on Monday evening, was delayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if I was going to get here yesterday, with the flights and stuff,\u201d he said before the stage. \u201cFlights were being cancelled all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Thomas arrived at his race hotel in the early hours of the morning and got only a few hours sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is enjoying it, really making the most of it. I\u2019m not really in the shape to win myself, but we\u2019ve got some good guys here to perform,\u201d he said of his Ineos Grenadiers team. The 39-year-old finished 25sec behind the leaders on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Froome sustained a life-threatening injury to his heart in the training crash in France last week that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-115729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}