FOUR-TIME Tour de France champion Chris Froome was undergoing surgery today after a serious training accident left him with injuries that could signal the end of his career.

The 40-year-old suffered a fractured vertebrae, collapsed lung and five broken ribs in a crash on Wednesday and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Toulon on the French Riviera, around 100 miles from his home in Monaco.

French newspaper L’Equipe reported that Froome was conscious on arrival at the hospital and able to speak to medical staff.

Froome’s injuries will certainly end his season and with it perhaps his career, given he is in the final months of the five-year contract he signed with the Premier-Tech team when he joined them for the start of the 2021 season.

A statement on Froome’s official X profile, also distributed by his team, said: “Chris was airlifted to hospital in Toulon yesterday following a serious training crash (no other cyclists or vehicles were involved).

“Fortunately Chris is stable and did not sustain any head injuries, however, scans have confirmed a pneumothorax, five broken ribs and a lumbar vertebrae fracture, for which he will undergo surgery this afternoon.

“We will update on Chris’s condition following surgery.”

Froome is one of the most successful cyclists in the history of the sport, having won seven Grand Tours – adding the Giro d’Italia and two Vuelta a Espana crowns to his four Tour successes, all achieved with Team Sky, now the Ineos Grenadiers.

He first won the Tour in 2013 and then won it three years in a row between 2015 and 2017.

Only four men have more Tour titles, with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain all five-time winners.

Froome won the Giro in 2018 and the Vuelta in 2011 and 2017 – the first of those Vuelta victories being awarded retrospectively in 2020 after Juan Jose Cobo was found guilty of a doping offence.

However, Froome has never recovered the physical shape he enjoyed before a serious crash he suffered during the 2019 Criterium du Dauphine, which left him in intensive care with a fractured femur, elbow, ribs and pelvis.

The last of his 46 professional career wins came at the 2018 Giro and his best result since that 2019 crash was third place on stage 12 of the 2022 Tour de France to Alpe d’Huez as Tom Pidcock took the victory.

Froome broke his collarbone at the UAE Tour in February and had previously hinted that 2025 could be his final year of competitive racing. He last raced at the Tour of Poland earlier this month, finishing 68th overall.