Chris Froome will start stage 2 despite crash injuries
Four-time Tour de France winner still in the race after fall
Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) will fight on in the Tour de France after sustaining injuries in a crash on the first stage.
"That was definitely a bit of a crazy stage," Froome said on Sunday morning.
"One moment everything was fine and we were heading towards the finish, and then at 60-70kph there was just a touch of wheels somewhere in the peloton and it was just carnage."
"There were probably 50-60 riders on the floor. There was just nowhere for me to go. I braked as hard as I could but I still went into the back of the guys who crashed in front of me. I hit my left side pretty hard, my left leg and chest. Went for scans last night, and got back at 1am but it's all good with no fractures, just a lot of swelling and a lot of bruising, so I'm pretty sore this morning. I'm going to try and get through today's stage, survive, and hope that in the coming days it starts to feel better."
Froome, who is riding the Tour as the team's road captain, was part of a mass-crash inside the final 10 kilometres that was caused by a touch of wheels near the front of the bunch, and came after the field had already suffered through the impact of a spectator with a sign stepping onto the road at 45 kilometres to go.
With riders down and bikes were scattered across the road and spilling out onto the sides, Froome was one of the slowest to remount, sitting on the tarmac before gingerly getting to his feet.
Froome finished the stage from Brest to Landerneau 14:37 behind winner Julian Alaphilippe and the team's GC leader, Michael Woods, who was also involved in the crash finished 8:49 down.
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It's Froome's first Tour de France since he suffered a double femur fracture to his right leg, multiple other fractures and a collapsed lung after hitting a stone as he previewed the time trial course at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.
More to follow...
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