Cycling news - Chris Froome must come back stronger, says team-mate Wout Poels

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The Team Ineos rider sustained a serious injury following a heavy crash in the Criterium du Dauphine on Wednesday.

Froome's hopes of securing a record-equalling fifth title this summer at the Tour were ended on Wednesday when he hit a wall at 60km an hour as he tried to blow his nose.

The six-times Grand Tour winner was taken to hospital during a course reconnaissance of the 26.1 km individual time trial around Roanne in central France - and team principal Dave Brailsford has confirmed that he will not be fit for the Tour.

Poels was riding just ahead of Froome on his way to finishing in 19th place, and he told reporters: "We were after the climb on the downhill and the wind took Chris Froome's wheel and he went down like really, really hard on the floor, and I think we were going 66 or 65kph. It was really bad.

"Yeah, it can happen. If you go down at 65kph, and he went down really, really hard, then you know it's not really good."

Adam Yates took the overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine while the stage four time-trial was won by Team Jumbo-Visma’s Wout Van Aert.

Heading into Thursday’s fifth stage, the Mitchelton-SCOTT rider has a four-second lead over Dylan Teuns.

Poels sustained a series of bad injuries during the 2012 Tour de France, ending up in intensive care after rupturing his spleen and kidneys, bruising his lungs and breaking three ribs during a mass pile-up.

A three-month absence from the bike followed, but having recovered to win a Monument in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Poels has become one of Froome's most important lieutenants.

"I hope it's not as bad a crash as what I had in 2012, but I mean it's also sport," he added. "There's also the mentality with us that sometimes you have a bad injury or accident and then you fight back. Hopefully, you can come back stronger.

"The DS car was behind him and luckily there was an ambulance 100 metres next to the course, so they came straight to him. I didn't go back but waited a little and saw he was in care, so thought it was better to leave the professionals there and give him the first aid. I didn't speak with him."