Chris Froome’s crash while warming up for a time trial in the Critérium du Dauphiné in mid-June could turn out to be the defining event of the 2019 race season.
It has not merely thrown the four-time Tour de France winner’s racing future into question – no matter how intense his desire and motivation, now matter how fervently you may wish him well, the seriousness of his injuries will make a return to his old self extremely difficult. In the blinking of an eye, the 2019 Tour completely changed its complexion.
Such is the power that a multiple Tour winner exerts over the race that all of a sudden there is more than a glimmer of hope for pretty much any of the wealth of riders who have found the Briton and his team unbreakable over the years.
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No disrespect to Froome's Team Ineos teammate and 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas, but history shows that it’s a different matter coming back to the Tour after win number one compared to after win number three.
There are two historical precedents for the situation as the build-up to this Tour begins. In 1976, Eddy Merckx completed the Giro d’Italia with a boil in a delicate place. He could have pulled out of the Giro, had the boil lanced and then gone for another win in the Tour. Instead, Merckx being Merckx, he opted to finish the Giro for his Italian sponsor, Molteni. It seems incredible now, but with their star unable to ride the Tour, Molteni simply pulled the whole team.
Seven years later, Bernard Hinault won the Vuelta a España in spite of a nagging pain in the tendon behind his knee in the final week. A more conservative individual might have pulled out a couple of days from the end; Hinault being Hinault, he kept going. His withdrawal from the Tour was announced only on June 18.
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