A crash early on in the 176.8km penultimate stage of the Tour Colombia in La Union yesterday forced Chris Froome out of contention for the title.
At about 2km into the stage, following the neutral zone, the four-time Tour de France winner was caught behind a pile-up on a descent which involved half the field.
Team Sky’s Chris Froome, pictured here at the Tour de France last year, fell out of contention in the Tour Colombia after being caught behind a crash. Photo: ASO/Pauline Ballet
The various teams reportedly elbowed and pushed one another in a scramble to get to the front which led to the pile-up.
Froome – although not having come down himself – was trapped behind the pile-up and was forced to chase down the quickly disappearing reduced bunch for the remainder of the race.
But it was to no avail as he fell short by just over 30 minutes, losing out on his GC ambitions.
“He [Froome] was caught behind a crash in the early stages which caused him to lose time,” Team Sky said on Twitter.
“As such, and with the [high] pace of the stage, he was in a group chasing the GC contenders.”
The Briton finished the stage in 119th place, precisely 33:30 behind the winner and new overall leader, Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Julian Alaphilippe.
The Frenchman leads the race with a time of 14:40:46, eight seconds clear of EF Education First’s Daniel Martinez in second.
The sixth and final stage today will comprise a 173.8km route from El Retiro to Alto de Palmas.
