Chris Froome, the British four-time winner of the Tour de France, confirms retirement from cycling - 'I knew it was over'
Updated 03/07/2026 at 11:36 GMT+1
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Chris Froome, the British modern cycling great, has confirmed his retirement from the sport. Froome is one of only eight riders to have ever completed cycling's Triple Crown by winning the three Grand Tours.
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Froome, who suffered a serious crash last summer, told Belgian outlet Sporza: "Unfortunately, there was that crash last summer - that was not the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over."
Froome is the only Brit to win the Tour de France multiple times - with the 2026 edition starting on Saturday, July 4 with a team time trial in Barcelona, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max - having won four times in five years between 2013 and 2017.
He has also won Vuelta a Espana twice in his career and the Giro d'Italia once in 2018.
Major crash derails Froome's career for second time
Froome had to be airlifted to hospital last August following a major crash in France which left him with a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a back fracture and a pericardial rupture - a tear to the sac around the heart.
His wife told The Times that the injuries could have been fatal and was "a lot more than just broken bones."
She said: "He’s fine but it’s going to be a long recovery process. He won’t be riding a bike for a while.
"Chris is happy for you to share this because people need to understand what is going on."
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Froome was a multiple-time Tour de France winner during Team Sky's reign at the top of world cycling.
A fifth title would have put him level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, but a major crash in 2019 put a pause on his career.
Froome crashed during the Criterium du Dauphine, a month before he was set to take part in the Tour de France, suffering a fracture to his femur, elbow and several ribs.
He opted to take part in the 2020 Vuelta rather than the Tour de France with Ineos, before moving to Israel Start-Up Nation in 2021.
However, declining form with Israel Premier Tech meant he had not been selected for the Tour de France since 2022.
Froome became the first Briton to win La Vuelta in 2018, but also retrospectively won the 2011 edition after Juan Jose Cobo was stripped of the title in 2019 due to doping violations.
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