Chris Froome crashes, borrows bike, grits teeth, saves Tour de France lead

Friday's stage 19 of the Tour de France was filled with drama for race leader Chris Froome, who crashed on a rainy descent but managed to finish the stage and keep his race lead — thanks to gritty racing and a borrowed bike.

Froome went down after losing his front wheel while riding over a white painted line in the middle of the road. Italian Vincenzo Nibali, a former Tour winner, went down with him.

The stage saw many riders going down in the slippery conditions.

You can see Froome and Nibali crashing below:

Both riders got up quickly and appeared to be OK, though Froome had road rash, a bleeding right knee, and a ripped-up yellow jersey.

Froome had to borrow his teammate Geraint Thomas' bike to keep racing and to protect his race lead.

The borrowed bike didn't have Froome's Osymetric chainrings, seen here on his regular bike before the Tour started in Normandy:

But he managed to ride along and finish the stage on the loaner bike.

Dutchman Bauke Mollema was the biggest loser of the day. He crashed and lost his near-certain podium spot, finishing well down on the other favorites. He is now 10th.

"Today showed exactly why I thought the Tour was not over," Froome, who sported a heavily bandaged knee on the podium, told ITV4, according to AFP. "I was really grateful nothing is seriously injured but it could have gone either way.

"Ironically, I was trying to stay safe but I hit one of the white lines and lost my front wheel."

Froome thanked his teammates for getting him to the finish. He said he was glad to have had an advantage of over four minutes in hand.

Romain Bardet, the French climbing specialist, won the stage.

Froome finished 36 seconds after Bardet. He was wearing a bandage on his right knee when he went up to get his yellow jersey.

Bardet is now second overall, and Colombian Nairo Quintana moved up to third.

The Tour finishes on Sunday in Paris, but there is one more tough mountain stage to get through on Saturday.

Froome is a two-time winner of the race and the defending champion.

Thomas tweeted this:

Back on stage 12, Froome crashed into a motorcycle and ran up Mont Ventoux until he could get a spare bike.

Froome has been eating well during the race. And the Kenyan-born Briton is so strong he taunted his rivals with a fake attack.

DON'T MISS: Tour de France leader Froome is so strong he taunted his rivals with a fake attack

SEE ALSO: Froome is using these weird chainrings, and they might be helping him win a historic 3rd Tour de France

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