Update: The training camp that Chris Froome is reported to have left appears to have taken place in early December, and not more recently, with the Team Ineos leader set to take part in another training camp later this week.
In a serious setback to his return from injuries suffered in a crash at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné, four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has reportedly left a Team Ineos training camp early, prompting one of the team's directors to tell Italian media he's not certain if the 34-year-old Briton will recover.
Bicisport reported that Froome left the team's Spanish camp after just two days and that his recovery is now being described as "slow."
Froome fractured his hip, elbow, femur, sternum and vertebrae in a warm-up crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June of last year, then underwent a second surgery in November to remove a metal plate in his hip and screws in his elbow.
His recovery was initially described as going well, as he returned to training earlier this summer, but the latest reports in Bicisport and SpazioCiclismo.com paint a much different picture, with Team Ineos sports director Dario David Cioni questioning if Froome will return to his Grand Tour-winning form.
“After two days of training in Spain, Froome, who aspires to the fifth yellow jersey, returns home. He is not well and who knows if he will recover,” Cioni said.
Froome was hoping to add a record-tying fifth yellow jersey to his collection last year, but the Dauphine crash knocked him out for the season and opened the door for young Colombian Egan Bernal to seize the race ahead of defending champion and Ineos teammate Gerraint Thomas.
With Froome's potential return, Bernal and Ineos had been calling into question the young Colombian's plans for an all-out Tour de France defence, instead aiming him toward the Giro d'Italia as well. This latest news has fuelled speculation that Bernal will now skip the Giro and focus on the Tour, leaving Thomas and defending Giro champion and new teammate Richard Carapaz to fight for the maglia rosa.
