Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome retires at 41 after career-ending training crash
The British cyclist, winner of four Tour de France titles among seven Grand Tour victories, confirmed his retirement on Friday, three days before the 2026 Tour begins, citing the severe injuries from an August 2025 training crash.
A quiet end to a golden era
Froome confirmed his decision on 3 July in Barcelona, on the eve of the Tour de France he once dominated. He had not raced since being airlifted to hospital in Toulon after striking a road sign near Saint-Raphaël on 28 August 2025. The crash left him with a collapsed lung, five broken ribs and a fractured lumbar vertebra. A pericardial tear was also repaired during surgery.
Unfortunately, there was that fall last summer. That wasn't the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over.
Seven Grand Tour victories
Between 2013 and 2018, Froome assembled a palmarès that places him joint-fourth on the all-time Grand Tour list. He won the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Vuelta a España in 2011 (the title was upgraded after Juan José Cobo's doping ban) and 2017, and the Giro d'Italia in 2018. His solo 80‑kilometre breakaway at that Giro made him the first rider since Bernard Hinault in 1983 to hold the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours simultaneously.
The crash that changed everything
The first career-altering accident struck during a reconnaissance ride at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné. Froome hit a wall at high speed, suffering an open femur fracture, hip, elbow, sternum, vertebral and rib injuries. He never won another race after that day; his last professional victory remained a stage at the 2018 Giro d'Italia. A move to Israel‑Premier Tech in late 2020 failed to revive his fortunes.
- Second at Vuelta a España, later upgraded to first after Cobo's doping ban.
- Wins his first Tour de France.
- Second Tour de France victory.
- Third Tour de France victory.
- Fourth Tour de France victory; later that year wins Vuelta a España.
- Wins Giro d'Italia, holding all three Grand Tour titles simultaneously.
- Severe crash at Critérium du Dauphiné; open femur fracture and other injuries.
- Life‑threatening training crash near Saint‑Raphaël; five broken ribs, pneumothorax, lumbar fracture.
- Announces retirement from professional cycling in Barcelona.
Froome at the Tour, one last time
Now teamless and having turned 41 in May, Froome is in Barcelona as a brand ambassador for Skoda, one of the Tour's sponsors. His presence at the Grande Boucle, starting on 4 July, closes a career that began with a support role to Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and turned him into Britain's most decorated Grand Tour rider. Olympic time‑trial bronzes at London 2012 and Rio 2016, plus a 2017 World Championship bronze, complete his international medal haul.
