Froome finishes 33rd with back injury at Tour de Romandie

BySportsbeat

Published 30/04/2017 at 20:28 GMT

Chris Froome finished the Tour de Romandie in 33rd place overall as his former Team Sky colleague Richie Porte took the win – the three-time Tour de France winner then revealed he is suffering with a back injury.

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Primoz Roglic took stage honours in the final time trial, but it was Porte who claimed the overall win, with Orica-Scott's Simon Yates dropping back into second place overall as Froome could only manage ninth on the day.

Won by Froome in 2013 and 2014, the Tour de Romandie is often used as an early indicator of form ahead of the Brit's main target for the season: July's Tour de France.

But he fell out of contention in the race after being dropped on the final climb of Saturday's Queen stage, won by Yates.

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However, despite the lowly finish and back injury, Froome is not too downhearted.

"Of course I would have liked to have been up there on the queen stage, but the truth is I got to the final climb and just didn't have it enough," he said.

"I've been having a few small issues with my lower back, but at the end of the day, I just didn't have the legs.

"There's still a lot of work for me to do ahead of the Tour de France, but I'm confident that I know how to get the job done."

Sportsbeat 2017

Tour de Romandie