No car, no political action against a rider from an Israeli team, just and only Chris Froome's error, who was distracted and lost balance from a traffic divider, violently ending up against a pole. As already reconstructed yesterday, the 40-year-old British rider remained conscious and in contact with his entourage, which provided first aid before being transferred by helicopter to Sainte-Musse Hospital in Toulon.

That of Sunday, August 10th at the Tour of Poland (68th), could therefore be the last competitive act of a rider who has written important sports stories. For the 7-time Grand Tour winner (4 Tour, 2 Vuelta, 1 Giro), the balance is heavy: pneumothorax, five broken ribs and a fracture of a lumbar vertebra for which he was operated on yesterday, as communicated by his team, Israel-Premier Tech.

Precisely, the incident occurred in Fayence, department of Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and not, as initially seemed, in Saint-Raphael. Another accident in French territory, after the reconnaissance of the time trial at the Dauphiné 2019 that deeply marked the British rider's career, when he suffered fractures to femur, elbow, ribs and hip and since then has never returned to his previous levels. It is no coincidence that his last significant success remains the 2018 Giro d'Italia.