Chris Froome leaves hospital and moves to rehabilitation facility to continue recovery following crash
Chris Froome has left the St Etienne University Hospital in France where he was being treated following his high-speed crash last week. The Team Ineos rider has been moved to an undisclosed rehabilitation facility.
Froome was left with an open fracture of his femur, and fractures to his elbow, ribs, sternum and C7 vertebra after hitting a wall at high-speed during a reconnaissance ride ahead of last Wednesday’s time trial at the Criterium du Dauphine. The four-time Tour champion lost around four pints of blood and was in surgery for six hours, according to doctors who operated on him.
Despite the severity of his injuries, which kept Froome in intensive care for a few days after his crash, The Telegraph reported last week that the plan was to transfer him to a rehab facility this week. And Froome tweeted on Thursday that he had now left the hospital.
“As my time at @ChuSaintEtienne has come to an end, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the doctors & nurses for the exceptional care provided to me,” the 34 year-old wrote. “It’s been a rough week but I appreciate you having made it as comfortable as possible for me.
“This is just the first step to what will be a long recovery. Unfortunately I’m not yet able to go home, but at least I’ll have an opportunity to get a visit from my kids.”
Meanwhile, Team Ineos showed just how deep their pool of talent runs as Egan Bernal snatched the overall lead at the Tour of Switzerland. The Colombian is leading the team in Switzerland with Geraint Thomas having had to abandon earlier this week after he too suffered a heavy crash.
As my time at @ChuSaintEtienne has come to an end, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the doctors & nurses for the exceptional care provided to me. It’s been a rough week but I appreciate you having made it as comfortable as possible for me.
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 20, 2019
Dutchman Antwan Tolhoek [Jumbo-Visma] claimed the first stage win of his career on stage six, with Bernal 17 seconds behind, enough to put him 12 seconds clear of Rohan Dennis [Bahrain-Merida].
Bernal is set to share leadership duties with Thomas at next month’s Tour, which lost yet another of its big beasts on Thursday as Team Sunweb confirmed that Tom Dumoulin has been ruled out of this year's race with a knee injury.
Dumoulin was second to Thomas last summer and had been expected to provide a stiff challenge again this year.
