Chris Froome will be assessed by Team Sky after a crash on the second stage of the Tour of Catalunya ended his hopes of winning the race.
The four-time Tour de France champion bruised his right side taking a tight corner and finished in a group of late riders and lost over 13 minutes on the 179.6km ride from Mataro to Sant Feliu de Guixols.
Froome was taking part in the week-long race in support of his 22-year-old Team Sky teammate Egan Bernal, the recent Paris-Nice winner who will lead Team Sky at the Giro d’Italia.
It was unclear whether Froome had suffered any more serious injuries in the crash, but he will be assessed.
“Froomey crashed just a couple of kilometres before we passed the finish line for the first time,” said Nicolas Portal, Sky’s sporting director. ”He still doesn’t really know what happened but it was a tricky corner, which had a few roadworks on the right and was also quite bumpy. Someone hit him and he slid and crashed.
“By the time he changed bike and got going the bunch was going too fast and there was no chance to come back. He is here to support Egan this week but it is a shame it happened.
“We could not ask another one of our guys to wait because we knew if we did this we’d have two riders less on the final climb. Today it was really important for Egan to have that support. It was a technical finish and we knew there could be some splits.
“Froomey said himself for the guys to stay at the front. Obviously we will monitor him but it seems like Froomey is OK.”
additional reporting by Reuters
