Froome withdraws from Vuelta after heavy crash (Reuters)

Chris Froome’s hopes of pulling off a rare Tour de France-Vuelta double are over after he was forced to withdraw before Thursday’s 12th stage after a heavy crash on Wednesday left him with a fractured bone in his foot. The twice Tour de France winner and Team Sky leader went down at the start of the brutally mountainous 11th stage in the Pyrenees and eventually limped across the line more than seven minutes behind new leader Fabio Aru of Astana. “Scans this morning confirm fractured navicular,” Froome wrote on his Twitter feed.