Tour de France champ Chris Froome 'rammed on purpose by an impatient driver' in hit-and-run

Three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome was "rammed on purpose by an impatient driver," he tweeted on Tuesday.

Froome said he was "okay" but the hit-and-run driver "kept going."

"Just got rammed on purpose by an impatient driver who followed me onto the pavement! Thankfully I'm okay. Bike totaled. Driver kept going!" he said.

The Team Sky rider and reigning Tour champion was left with what appeared to be a damaged frame and two broken wheels.

His tweet was geotagged in Beausoleil in southern France, near Monaco, where Froome lives.

"A police source in the neighbouring town of Menton said: 'Mr Froome filed a complaint at the police station in Beausoleil, where he was met by an officer. He was very calm,' the AFP reported.

"He was hit by a vehicle which was right on his tail. He wasn't hurt but his bike was in bits. The problem is that he does not have the registration number of the car and it will be a bit complicated [to find the motorist]."

Police will study CCTV footage along the road, the AFP source said.

Last year Froome won the Tour, cycling's most prestigious race, for the third time, becoming the first British rider to do so.

Froome, a Kenyan-born Briton, aims to defend his Tour title on July 1 when the three-week race starts in Düsseldorf, Germany.

On April 22, Italian pro cyclist Michele Scarponi was killed while he was out training after being struck by the driver of a van.

In 2016, six members of the Giant-Alpecin team were struck by a driver and injured while training in Spain.

A commenter on Froome's related Facebook post, Chris Horgan, said:

"This is terrible to see. It seems there are a lot of professional riders getting in to trouble on the roads lately. Teams should be giving their riders front and rear facing HD cameras to record all training rides - great insurance policy and much better chance of holding someone accountable."

A Reddit user with the handle MeccIt added:

"In the back of my mind, I always assumed professional riders don't have to put up with the same crap on the road as the rest of us - but seeing a TdF champion get rammed off his bike, in France, puts rest to that."

Influential bike blogger Bike Snob NYC (real name Eben Weiss) said: "At this point driving should be classified as an illness. After all, if even the winner of the Tour de France isn't fast enough for them then who the hell is?"

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