Chris Froome is in intensive care after sustaining multiple serious injuries in a high-speed crash before stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine.
Froome suffered a fractured right femur, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs after crashing into a wall during his route reconnaissance on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old was later airlifted to St Etienne University Hospital for surgery and Team Ineos team principal Sir Dave Brailsford said the four-time Tour de France winner was “not in great shape”.
“He’s in intensive care in Saint Etienne hospital now,” he told the BBC.
“He’s been operated on to make sure that first phase of medical care is as optimal as possible and we will manage it from there. It’s an evolving situation. It is concerning, there is no doubt about that.
“There are crashes and bad crashes and this was a bad crash.”
A statement released by Team Ineos confirmed Froome would miss the rest of the Criterium du Dauphine and also the Tour de France, which begins on July 6.
“Team Ineos can confirm that Chris Froome sustained multiple serious injuries during a recon of stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine today,” it read.
“The 34-year-old crashed towards the end of his route recon in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, sustaining injuries including a fractured right femur, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs.
Chris is in surgery at the moment to repair the multiple fractures, please keep him in your thoughts. I hope to be able to share a message from him tomorrow morning – MF
“Froome has subsequently been ruled out of the rest of the race and will also miss the 2019 Tour de France.”
Brailsford confirmed that Froome hit a wall after he took his hands off his handlebars to blow his nose.
“He came down a technical descent and on to a straighter piece of road with houses either side,” Brailsford said.
“He signalled to (team-mate) Wout (Poels) that he was going to clear his nose, he took his hand off the bar to do that and a gust of wind took his front wheel, he lost control and went straight into the wall of a house.
“We have had a look at his data, he went from 54kmh to a dead stop.”
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