Froome, thankfully, was unharmed, but his Pinarello Dogma bike was damaged beyond repair by the collision, which saw him “rammed on purpose by an impatient driver who followed me into the pavement”, as he wrote on Twitter.
Team Sky arranged for a new Pinarello to be flown out to Monaco on Tuesday night, and Froome returned to the roads of south east France on Wednesday to resume his training block.
“Mr. Froome filed a complaint at the Beausoleil police branch, where he was dealt with by an officer,” said a spokesperson for the Menton police force. “He was very calm. He had been knocked over by a vehicle that was driving right up behind him. He’s not injured but his bike is mangled.
“The problem is that we don’t have the vehicle’s registration number and that’s going to make it complicated. We’ll examine the CCTV images from the area, if there are any.”
Froome, who described the French police as ‘brilliant’, counts himself lucky not to have been seriously injured.
“Pretty scary experience today. The French police have been brilliant, I have given them all the details. Just grateful I wasn't hurt,” wrote the Team Sky rider on Twitter. “Thank you for all the messages of support. New bike flying in tonight Back to training tomorrow.”
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Froome then posted a photo of himself riding on Wednesday, with the caption: “back at it.”
The risk professional cyclists take when training on the open roads have been laid bare in recent weeks, not least when Michele Scarponi lost his life in Italy after being hit by a van on a crossroads. That was a tragic, freak accident, but the Froome incident, a case of direct confrontation between driver and rider, follows a physical assault on Yoann Offredo, also in France.
