London: Reigning Tour de France champion Chris Froome said Tuesday he had been deliberately knocked off his bicycle by a hit-and-run driver while training in southern France.
The British rider, a three-time winner of the Tour, road cycling’s most prestigious race, posted a picture of his damaged bike on Twitter but said he he himself had not been injured in the incident.
“Just got rammed on purpose by an impatient driver who followed me onto the pavement!” tweeted the 31-year-old Froome, who rides for the British-based Team Sky. “Thankfully I’m okay. Bike totalled. Driver kept going!”
The picture was geotagged from Beausoleil in France, near Froome’s home in Monaco.
Last month, former Giro d’Italia winner Michele Scarponi was killed when the 37-year-old Astana team rider was knocked off his bike after colliding with a van while training near his home in central Italy.
Team Sky said the Monaco-based Froome had continued his training session after returning home to get a spare bike.
Froome is training for June’s Criterium du Dauphine, his familiar warm-up event before the Tour de France between July 1-23. He is favourite to win the event for a third successive year.
The incident was just another reminder of the continued perils faced by professional cyclists on the road during training rides.
It occurred less than three weeks since the death of 37-year-old Michele Scarponi, the former Giro d’Italia winner, who was struck by a van while training in Italy.
His team, Astana, described the death of Scarponi, a husband and father of two, as a ‘tragedy too big to be written’.
— AFP
