Froome’s hopes for Tour shaken by Thomas crash

CHRIS Froome’s Tour de France hopes took a blow yesterday as chief lieutenant Geraint Thomas crashed out.

Thomas was second overall at the start of the day, just 12 seconds behind reigning champion and his Sky team leader Froome.

But just under halfway through the mountainous 181.5km ninth stage from Nantua to Chambery, Thomas crashed hard on a fast and wet descent.

He bravely tried to soldier on but soon climbed off his bike with a suspected broken collarbone, his bloodied right side showing the damage.

It was the fourth time in just more than a week that Thomas had crashed during this Tour.

He also went down in the second, fourth and eighth stages.

It’s the second Grand Tour this year that Thomas has crashed out of having had to leave the Giro d’Italia in May as well.

And yet the Tour had started so well for the 31-year-old Briton, who won the opening stage time-trial, his first ever Tour stage victory. He had held the yellow jersey for four days before giving it up to Froome on Wednesday’s fifth stage.

Thomas’s absence means Froome loses an important team-mate for the remaining two weeks of the Tour.

Australian Richie Porte also crashed spectacularly out of the Tour de France.

Porte, who was fifth at the time, slipped off the tarmac and onto a grass verge on the inside of a rapid descent. He careered across the rode and clattered into Ireland’s Dan Martin, bringing the two crashing into the rocky side of the road in the final 25km of the 181.5km stage.

Porte was given immediate medical assistance by an ambulance and some minutes later hadn’t moved. However, organisers said he was conscious and speaking but was being taken to hospital.

Thomas had crashed on another descent earlier in the stage and quit the Tour with a suspected fractured collarbone.

Several other riders had also quit after crashes while two-time former winner Alberto Contador was able to carry on quickly after coming down on an uphill section.

Martin continued after Porte took him down, despite crashing a second time shortly afterwards. — AFP

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