Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome retires

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has retired from cycling.

He hasn't raced since sustaining serious injuries in a high-speed crash last year.

The Briton, 41, was airlifted to hospital where scans revealed a lower back fracture, a collapsed lung and five broken ribs.

His wife later said he'd also suffered a life-threatening rupture of his pericardium, a fluid-filled sac protecting the heart.

Froome confirmed to Belgian broadcaster Sporza he had now called it a day, admitting the crash "was not the way I wanted it to end - but even then, I knew it was over".

As part of Team Sky (now Team INEOS), he won the Tour de France in 2013 - and then three years in a row from 2015 to 2017.

His four wins put him joint second on the all-time list.

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Froome also won the sport's other blue riband races, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana (twice), as well as two bronzes at the Olympics in 2012 and 2016.

He joined the Israel-Premier Tech team in 2021 but was left out its Tour de France line-up several years running, and his contract wasn't renewed for 2026.

Froome's crash last year wasn't his only serious incident on the bike.

In 2019, he spent three weeks in hospital after fracturing his neck, femur, elbow, hip and ribs when he crashed into a wall.

(c) Sky News 2026: Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome retires