Chris Froome was in hospital until the early hours of this morning after falling hard during stage one of the Tour de France, but the Briton will take to the start-line on day two.
The four-time winner was one of numerous riders to be caught up in two large crashes during a stressful opening stage of the Tour, with the Israel Start-Up Nation rider hitting his left side hard during the second big crash just 7km from the finish line.
Froome, who is back racing the Tour for the first time since 2018, was in visible pain in the immediate aftermath of the crash and after making it to the finish more than 14 minutes in arrears surrounded by three teammates, he went to the local hospital for checks.
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Fortunately the examinations returned positive news with no breaks or fractures, but Froome reported on the morning of stage two that he is still suffering from pain even though he will resume the race.
“I hit my left side pretty hard, my left leg and also the chest,” he said in a video posted on his team’s Twitter account. “I went for scans last night, spent the whole evening in hospital and got back at 1am.
“But it’s all good. There are no fractures, [but] there is a lot of swelling and bruising. I am pretty sore this morning [and] I will try and get through today, try and survive the day and stage and hope that over the coming days I will start to feel better.”
It is almost the nightmare scenario for Froome in his first appearance in the race for three years, but he admitted that avoiding the pile-up was an impossible task.
“It was definitely a bit of a crazy stage,” he reflected. “One moment everything was fine, [we were] heading towards the finish in the last 10km, [going] 60 or 70kmh, [and] there was a touch of wheels somewhere in the peloton and it was carnage.
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“There were 50 or 60 riders on the floor, [and] unfortunately there was just nowhere for me to go. I braked as hard as I could but I went into the back of the guys who had crashed in front of me.”
Marc Hirschi, of UAE-Team Emirates, was also involved in the crash but he too will attempt to start stage two.
The Swiss, who only joined the team this season, was the breakthrough rider of the 2020 edition, and is aiming to use this year's race to kick-start a frustrating season so far.
