Thursday, 3 September 2015

Cycling:Chris Froome withdraws from Vuelta a España after stage 11 crash


Chris Froome’s hopes of pulling off a rare Tour de France-Vuelta a España double are over after the Briton confirmed his withdrawal from the race on Thursday morning with a fractured bone in a foot following a heavy crash early on Wednesday.

Froome hit a barrier at the start of the brutal 11th stage in the Pyrenees and limped across the line more than seven minutes behind the new leader, Fabio Aru, and almost nine minutes behind the stage winner, Mikel Landa from Spain. Later on Wednesday, the two-times Tour de France winner admitted it was unlikely he would start stage 12 after undergoing scans on his injured knee and shoulder.

Confirming his withdrawal on Thursday, Froome tweeted: “Scans this morning confirm fractured navicular. End of the Vuelta for me.”

Froome appeared close to abandoning the race when he was dropped from the group of main contenders with three of the six climbs remaining but the 30-year-old doggedly continued with the help of his Sky team-mates and managed to finish the stage.

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