Froome survives Tour crash relatively unscathed

By Julien Pretot SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, France (Reuters) - In a split second, Chris Froome's hopes of claiming a third Tour de France title hung in the balance. His bike slid on the plain white line on a slippery descent towards the end of Friday's 19th stage and the Briton got back up with cuts and bruises to his back, elbow and knee before taking his team mate Geraint Thomas's bike for the final climb. "Today shows exactly why (the Tour is not won before the finish line is crossed in Paris). There's nothing seriously injured by it could have gone either way," said Froome, who leads stage winner Romain Bardet of France by 4:11 going into Saturday's last competitive stage. "I was trying to stay up front and safe and I just hit one of the white lines and I lost my front wheel. I'm OK, I'm lucky nothing is seriously injured I lost a bit of skin and banged my knee a bit." Froome, who skipped the traditional post-stage news conference as he was taken down the mountain in a team car, was seen with a bandage on his right knee on the podium where he was handed the yellow jersey. Leading Dutchman Bauke Mollema, who cracked in the finale after also crashing, by 3:52 going into Friday's 146-km trek from Albertville, proved crucial for Froome as his massive advantage meant there was no need to panic. "It's the kind of day I'm grateful I have a four-minute advantage," said the defending champion. When other rivals attacked in the 9.8-km ascent to Le Bettex, Froome managed to respond, being brought back by his lieutenant, Wout Poels. "It was great to have team mates all the way up to the finish, it was a great team effort especially from Wout," he said. It is not the first time that Froome has looked vulnerable on the Tour this year. On the 12th stage to Mont Ventoux he crashed after former team mate Richie Porte collided into a TV motorbike, running up the climb after his bike was broken in the incident. The race jury, however, ruled that he should not lose time over what organisers called an extraordinary incident. "Tomorrow I'm going to be stiff after today but hopefully I can rely on my team mates for one last push to get through tomorrow's stage," said Froome. "It could have been worse, let's look on the bright side and if you look at the GC he even gained a bit of time," his sports director Nicolas Portal said. (Editing by Ed Osmond)