Chris Froome recovered from a small crash late on stage eight at the Giro d’Italia to retain his time gap to race leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott).
Froome slipped coming out of a hairpin turn towards the top of the final ascent to Montevergine di Mercogliano with five kilometres to go, but was immediately back on his bike, with teammates David De La Cruz, Kenny Elissonde and Wout Poels quickly bringing him back into the main group of leaders.
“The guys were fantastic. They helped me get straight back into the race – and straight back to the front of the race – within a kilometre”, said Froome.
“It’s never much fun crashing in the final of a race, especially on a hilltop finish, but the roads were really slippery and I just lost my back wheel when I went over a white line accelerating out of the corner.
“I didn’t want to be caught off guard coming into that final, so I think it was the right thing to do, to get back to the front and stay in control of things. I think the guys did a really good job of getting me back up there.
“I’m happy to tick off another day. Tomorrow is going to be a really tough stage.”
