Chris Froome abandons Tirreno-Adriatico with fractured wrist

Chris Froome will not start stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday after sustaining a fractured wrist earlier in the race.

The Israel-Premier Tech rider and four-time Tour de France winner crashed late on stage 2, but initial medical checkups did not reveal any broken bones and he raced on for two days.

However, according to a post by his team on Twitter shortly after stage 4, a more detailed check using a technique known as advanced imaging revealed that Froome had a broken scaphoid, a small bone in his left wrist.

At the time of his abandon, the 38-year-old was lying 156th overall, more than 16 minutes down on race leader Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).

The British rider was called up late to Tirreno-Adriatico, his eleventh appearance in the race and his first in a WorldTour event since last April, as a replacement for teammate Derek Gee, who broke his collarbone at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February.

Speaking to Cyclingnews before stage 2, Froome said he was aiming to fight for a place on the Tour de France line-up, after missing out on selection last year.

“Looking forward to getting some WorldTour racing in the legs. This is the first WorldTour event I'm doing this year after Rwanda and some time at altitude as well,” Froome said on Tuesday morning.

“So just looking forward to getting back into it again and continuing a steady build towards the Tour.”

Following this setback,  Froome's team stated: “Chris will return home to see a specialist to determine whether surgery will be necessary and to devise a treatment and recovery plan.”