Ouch! Chris Froome

[240Cup]

Bit of an odd one?!

Vid of him just apparently just before the crash riding with no hands putting a jacket on with someone telling him not to take risks and then apparently no hands at 65kph blowing his nose a bit later whereupon he bins it.

65kph with no hands at bottom of descent to blow nose? Couldn't he have waited or done it with one hand like I assume most of us do over one shoulder into the face of team mate behind?

All a bit strange.

[vxsmithers]

we all do stupid things we get away with, sometimes they catch up on you.

End of his top flight career? maybe, but I hope not. That's a lot of broken bits to mend right without any bad side effects / loss of performance

[prand]

I'm not saying it's stupid, its an accident - he's a pro cyclist so will have the skills and experience to do pretty much anything on a bike.

Broken femur is pretty bad though, I hear he's in intensive care now which is not great. It's not unknown for people to die of shock, blood loss or blood clots and experience major damage due to the force of breaking the biggest bone in the body.

Wish him all the best and a shame he won't be around for Le Tour. I'm sure some will not be so sad.

[lufbramatt]

Apparently broken pelvis, elbow and ribs too. Have heard the femur fracture was open, as in bits of bone sticking through the skin. Grim.

Wishing him a quick and full recovery, will be a while before we see him in a grand tour again, if ever

[andySC]

He’s in a real mess according to 5 Live. DB seemed quite downbeat as you’d expect. I didn’t know the fracture was compound, that’s grim and complicates things. I think this may well be the end of his career. He’s 34 now and will certainly be out of competition until next year, will he be a GC contender if/when he returns? Of course he will have access to the best rescourses when he resumes training and depending on the method of repair could be back on a turbo within a few weeks, but he’s got to come back stronger than he is now while overcoming a serious injury while getting on a bit (in pro cycling terms).

[E65Ross]

I heard yesterday it was "just" a fractured pelvis, now reading online (as well as here) it's a femur, pelvis, elbow and ribs....if the femur fracture was an open compound fracture, as well as his other injuries, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was career-ending for him.

Such a shame. I hope he can at least ride a bike again, and let's hope that he is able to enjoy a healthy life and can recover quickly. I hope he does return to pro-cycling, but it certainly remains to be seen

[anonymous-user]

I’d be amazed if he came back after this. Beloki (the guy who went down when Armstrong had his diversion across the field in the TDF one year) was 31 when he broke his femur in two places and that was that for him.

Poor guy.

[Cardinal Hips]

"I don't always take both my hands off the bars to blow my nose, but when I do, I make sure I'm doing 40mph downhill" - C. Froome

[E65Ross]

Suspect he didn't take both hands off to blow his nose.... Either 1 hand off and the wind caught the front wheel.... Or he was still faffing about with his jacket and trying to blow his nose at the same time. I mean, who takes both hands off the bars to blow their nose?!

[WinstonWolf]

E65Ross said:

I heard yesterday it was "just" a fractured pelvis, now reading online (as well as here) it's a femur, pelvis, elbow and ribs....if the femur fracture was an open compound fracture, as well as his other injuries, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was career-ending for him.

Such a shame. I hope he can at least ride a bike again, and let's hope that he is able to enjoy a healthy life and can recover quickly. I hope he does return to pro-cycling, but it certainly remains to be seen

I'd say it depends on where in the femur the break is and how much soft tissue damage there is. Mid-shaft with minimal tissue damage he may be back next year, if it's in the joint with soft tissue damage scarring will probably finish his career

[Amateurish]

E65Ross said:

Suspect he didn't take both hands off to blow his nose.... Either 1 hand off and the wind caught the front wheel.... Or he was still faffing about with his jacket and trying to blow his nose at the same time. I mean, who takes both hands off the bars to blow their nose?!

Yes, just the one hand and caught by the wind, according to DB.

Very sad, probably career ending.

It's a very dangerous sport, probably more so than F1 these days.

[lufbramatt]

Strangely it looks like he might be awarded the win of the 2011 Vuelta after the winner has just been done for doping? weird timing

[z4RRSchris]

he hit a sold brick wall at 55kph, not as if he had a lie down whilst moving and skidded along, its like being hit by a car. im amazed he is still alive.

poor chap, im amazed if he comes back from this, i would call it a day.

[dudleybloke]

Nasty accident. Hope he recovers quickly.

[GOATever]

Twitter reports that the bike is fine. Phew, that was a worry for a bit.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Cyclingnewsfeed/status/...

[gl20]

z4RRSchris said:

poor chap, im amazed if he comes back from this, i would call it a day.

Agreed. I’d have thought this is surely too much injury to recover from to be competitive at top flight?

[anonymous-user]

I think Froome might be the only pro I’ve ever just fall off his bike going up hill. He’s an absolute crash magnet but has shown a lot more confidence descending over the past couple of years, but has never seemed a natural to me.

[Dannbodge]

gl20 said:

Agreed. I’d have thought this is surely too much injury to recover from to be competitive at top flight?

I'm not sure.

The surgeon reckons he could be back on the bike in 6 months.
If any team is likely to get their riders back on form after injury, you'd have to put money on it being Ineos

[z4RRSchris]

true, but if G wins the tour, then next year will be tough to have chris as a leader against G having won two on the trot, esp with Chris being mid 30's and a load of young guns coming up.

He should do a rosberg and end on a high.

[prand]

z4RRSchris said:

true, but if G wins the tour, then next year will be tough to have chris as a leader against G having won two on the trot, esp with Chris being mid 30's and a load of young guns coming up.

He should do a rosberg and end on a high.

I don't think you can ever write off an athlete at the top of their game. It is so hard to just turn it off, and depending on recovery, we may not see the last of Froome on a bike. Saying that, I think Froome not being there at the Tour this year should shake things up a bit. Absolutely no guarantee Geraint will win, I think he benefitted last year as riders had to keep an eye on both potential winners giving the smaller, less resourced teams a big headache. This year without Froome may open things up a bit and allow the teams to compete. However I still imagine that Ineos are a bit relieved they now just focus on one lead rider without concerns with what to do about Froome & Thomas competing with each other. Plus with the team resources of Ineos and the very talented Bernal moving into the number 2 spot (I'm assuming) he still has a good chance.