Team Sky pull leader back into contention after bunch splits
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Chris Froome at the start of stage 2 at Tirreno-Adriatico(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Chris Froome draws a crowd at the Tirreno-Adriatico press conference(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico was flat out(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome poses for a selfie with a fan(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky) came through unscathed in a late scare on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico after a crash in the bunch threatened to ruin the British rider's GC prospects.
Several riders hit the deck in a high-speed fall inside the final seven kilometres, and although Froome was not taken down he was held up by the fall. Froome and the chase group eventually made it back to the leaders before Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) won the stage ahead of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).
"I wasn't involved but I was held up," Froome told Cyclingnews as he warmed down on the rollers outside the Team Sky bus.
"The road was blocked with riders, and it was big, big pile up. It took a couple of kilometres to come back to the front, but I was with Jonathan [Castroviejo] and Gianni [Moscon]. They helped me get back to the front.
"I was on Michal Kwiatkowski's wheel when it happened, but someone hit me from behind and I lost my balance. I thought we'd still make it back because a lot of guys went down and they were chasing pretty hard to get back."
Froome finished 51st on the stage and sits nine seconds off the race lead in ninth place after two stages.
Before the stage, Froome responded to UCI president David Lapparient's comments regarding Team Sky and the credibility of cycling. Lappartient has called on the CADF to open an investigation into Team Sky.
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Froome is currently fighting an adverse analytical finding after returning twice the permitted level of salbutamol in an anti-doping test at last year's Vuelta a Espana. Under the rules of the sport, he is allowed to continue racing while his case rumbles on. Lappartient told the BBC on Wednesday that it 'would be a disaster for the image of cycling' if Froome rode the Tour de France this year without a resolution in the case.
Froome responded on Thursday morning, telling Cyclingnews: "I saw his comments yesterday and I think what I would say is that I'm doing my best to follow the due process here, in this matter. I get that it's a difficult situation, this was obviously meant to have been a confidential UCI process but this was made public, so that changes things."
"Given his concern for the reputation of the sport, I think it would be more sensible of him to raise his concerns in person or at least through the right channels as opposed to through the media.
"I'm obviously doing everything I can to get this resolved as quickly as possible, and just trying to keep my head down."
Froome is targeting a Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double this year after winning both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2017.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
