• Road World Championships

Worlds washout for Froome and Great Britain in Tuscany

ESPN staff
September 29, 2013
The wet conditions in Tuscany resulted in several crashes at the Road World Championships © AP
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Tour de France champion Chris Froome withdrew from the men's road race at the World Championships as Great Britain failed to see a single team member finish.

Froome abandoned with more than 80km left having already lost most of his Great Britain team. Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish dropped out following an earlier incident involving several riders in the wet conditions.

His withdrawal put paid to Froome's plans to become the first man in 24 years to win the Tour and world road race in the same year.

"There was a long way to go still and I knew it wasn't the day today," Froome said.

"This has been a really big target for me. I've trained really hard for this. It's disappointing, but I've got to bear in mind that this has been an amazing season for me regardless.

"This would have been a fantastic way to end it off but it's not to be."

Britain's team also included Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard, Josh Edmondson, Steve Cummings and Luke Rowe, who replaced Jonathan Tiernan-Locke after the 2012 Tour of Britain winner withdrew on Thursday due to his involvement in a UCI inquiry over a potential discrepancy in his biological passport.

Portugal's Rui Costa won the event.

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