four times Tour de France Winner Chris Froome was forced to delay his preparations for the 2022 season due to a knee injury.
Froome has revealed that a tendon in his knee was damaged during pre-season training. “I just came back to the hospital with some scans,” said the British cyclist on your youtube channel, “For the past 10 days I have been experiencing severe pain in the outer part of my knee while pedaling.”
“Unfortunately I think I was probably a little too eager to get back into training in the last few weeks, pushing a little too much,” Froome said. “It was after a few weeks off the bike and maybe the body just wasn’t ready for that hard push. It’s flared up and swollen a little.”
“This means I have to take the best part of a week off the bike before starting very slowly,” the 36-year-old continued. “It’s definitely a blow to me. I’m not sure where I’m going to start the racing year and it’s going to push everything back a little bit.”
Froome is no stranger to injuries after breaking his femur, elbow, hip and ribs in a 2019 accident while training for the Critérium du Dauphiné in Ronne, France. After winning the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Froome returned to racing with Israel start-up Nation after three years in 2021.
Michael Woods was preferred over Froome as team leader, and Froome’s hopes of being in good shape overall were affected in the first leg, when he picked up injuries in a late crash. He finished 133rd and took part in the Criterium, Volta a Catalunya and Tour of Romandi last year.