• Chris Froome suffered severe injuries after crashing on a training ride on Wednesday.
• The four-time Tour de France champion reportedly hit a wall during a high-speed descent. He was unable to speak and needed an airlift to the hospital.
• “It’s clear he’ll take no part in the Tour” this year, team manager David Brailsford said.

Chris Froome will miss the Tour de France after crashing into a wall and suffering severe injuries while on a training ride on Wednesday, Team Ineos general manager Dave Brailsford confirmed.

“It’s clear he’ll take no part in the Tour,” Brailsford told a French television station as Froome, a four-time Tour champion, was being treated at the scene in a parked ambulance. Brailsford added that Froome had difficulty speaking and would need to be airlifted to the hospital.

A witness at the scene said Froome, who had been pre-riding a time trial course at the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race in France, suffered an open fracture of the femur as well as other other injuries, notably to his elbows.

Brailsford said Froome had been riding downhill with teammate Wout Poels when a gust of wind blew him off track, sending him into a wall.

“They were going very fast and the wind got his front wheel and sent him straight into the wall,” Brailsford told reporters. “He’s in a very, very serious condition and he could hardly speak. He’ll be helicoptered to either Lyon or Saint-Etienne hospital within a few minutes.”

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme was swift to wish Froome a speedy recovery.

“We hope he gets well soon,” Prudhomme said. “The Tour de France won’t be the same without him. Chris Froome has been the central character at the Tour since 2013.”

The Kenyan-born Froome, who combines top-level time trialing skills with a fearsome prowess for climbing, took his first Tour de France title in 2013 with Team Sky, which later became Team Ineos after a sponsorship change this past March.

He went on to three further Tour wins in 2015, 2016, and 2017, as well as to victories at the 2017 Vuelta a España and 2018 Giro d’Italia, making him the most winning Grand Tour rider of his generation. His Sky/Ineos teammate, Geraint Thomas, won the Tour de France title last year.

Froome is one Tour de France victory away from tying cycling legends Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain, who all hold the same record of five Tour championships.

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