An early crash on stage 11 of the Vuelta a España saw an injured Chris Froome (Sky) bravely finish the stage nine minutes down on winner Mikel Landa (Astana), but with his chances of taking a Tour-Vuelta double victory suffering a huge blow.
Froome is now 15th overall, seven and a half minutes back on new race leader Fabio Aru and with a question mark hanging over the Briton's condition following a crash that injured his shoulder and grazed one of his knees.
A crash so early on a mountain stage would have been unfortunate for any rider, but coming so early in the day labelled by Froome and others as the hardest they would ever have to tackle in a Grand Tour, this was misfortune on a large scale.
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The stage was barely underway before Spanish television commentators on a motorbike shouted “¡Caida [Crash] de Chris Froome! ¡Caida de Chris Froome!”
The next images showed Froome dismounted and moving stiffly as he assessed the damage caused by a crash just before a left-hand bend.
Sky and Froome attempted to limit the damage by putting the team on the front on the Coll d'Ordino and Col de la Rabassa, but on the Collada de la Gallina, some 45km from the line, the Briton was clearly in serious trouble and began losing time fast.
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