Chris Froome to ride for Egan Bernal at Volta a Catalunya after crash

Chris Froome will ride in support of Egan Bernal at the Volta a Catalunya after a crash took him out of overall contention.

The Team Sky rider was involved in a crash on stage two and finished the day 14 minutes behind the peloton, but will ride on after suffering some cuts in the fall.

Now well out of the general classification battle, Froome will ride in support of his Colombian team-mate for the remainder of the race.

>>> Michael Matthews sails to victory on stage two of Volta a Catalunya 2019 

Team Sky sports director Nicolas Portal said: “Froomey crashed just a couple of kilometres before we passed the finish line for the first time.

“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 this happened.”

Froome was involved in an off-camera crash with two Bora-Hansgrohe riders 35km from the line, and was forced to wait for a bike as the peloton pressed on.

The four-time Tour de France winner was left isolated as his team worked to protect Bernal in the chaotic run to the finish.

With Astana driving the pace on the front of the peloton, the gap to Froome extended out to six minutes as he tried to chase back on.

Despite working with a small group of riders who had also been left behind, Froome finished 14 minutes down.

>>> Julian Alaphilippe knocks Alejandro Valverde off top spot of UCI World Ranking 

Portal added: “We couldn’t ask another one of our guys to wait because we knew if we did this we’d have two riders fewer 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 okay.”