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news
Chris Froome (copyright Zac Williams, SWpics.com)Chris Froome doored on way home from training ride, sustains minor injuries
Chris Froome has revealed that he was the victim of a dooring while returning home from a training ride yesterday, sustaining minor injuries in the crash – and has advised drivers to learn the Dutch Reach technique, which aims to minimise the possibility of such incidents happening.
The 37-year-old Israel Premier Tech rider broke the news of his crash in a video on TikTok, appearing with a bandage on his left elbow, and according to VeloNews he also sustained a grazed hip during the incident, which happened shortly before he was due to arrive at his home in Monaco at the end of the ride.
@chrisfroome Ride ended badly with a shredded elbow from getting doored 🤕 #crash #cycling #advice ♬ original sound - Chris Froome
“Yesterday I went out for a lovely Sunday ride,” he said. “It was stunning, lovely weather, stunning views but just before I got home, 50 metres before my front door, I got doored.
“That means as I was riding along someone in a parked car opened their door right in front of me. It was literally a metre in front of me. I didn’t even make it to my brakes. I hit the door and went flying over.”
The four-time Tour de France champion then spoke about the Dutch Reach technique, which from January this year forms part of the advice to road users in Great Britain under the Highway Code.
“I've just got one piece of advice for anyone getting out of their vehicle,” Froome said.
“It's called the Dutch Reach. Instead of opening the door with the hand that’s closest to the door, use your opposite hand so you naturally turn your body in that way,” he explained.
“You get to see if there’s any traffic coming or most importantly, any bikes coming. So, use the Dutch Reach. It’s extremely helpful and causes a lot less pain to our cyclists and it’s a very simple thing for you guys to do.”
It’s not the first time that Froome, who has struggled to recapture top form following his horrific crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné, has crashed due to the actions of a motorist while training on the Côte d'Azur.
In May 2017, a couple of months before he took his fourth overall victory at the Tour de France, he tweeted that he had been “rammed on purpose by an impatient driver who followed me onto the pavement,” with the then Team Sky rider adding that while he was uninjured, his Pinarello bike was written off.
> Chris Froome rammed “on purpose” – bike destroyed – by hit and run driver in France
A number of people commenting on the video Froome posted to TikTok today suggested that cyclists should ensure they ride sufficiently far away from parked vehicles to avoid the risk of being doored.
In response to one who asked him, “Are you not supposed to give room for an opening door?” Froome replied: “Not always possible when the road is narrow and cars are passing.”
Another wrote: “Ride at least 4 ft away from parked cars......then get abused by drivers for ‘taking the lane’. You can’t win, it’s why I tend towards MTB these days.”
“Exactly,” Froome replied, adding a ‘see no evil’ monkey emoji.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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21 comments
There is a new development that Lexus are putting on their cars. With the advent of electronic door latches, they have linked this to the blind spot monitoring sensors to prevent a door being opened if it is not safe to do so. I assume the sensors are good enough to pick up cyclists (and pedestrians).
But of course, the drivers will come to rely on this tech and not bother looking at all.
Great until the tech doesn't work or they use a vehicle without it.
Learning Dutch reach from as early as possible is the best option.
I was about to reply with just that.
"I did check, the sensors were not bleeping - the cyclist must have come out of nowhere."
If I'm travelling at 20mph how far back will this new tech look, will it give me 1,2,3,5,10 seconds to grab my breaks and shout "close your door" it's not like the little red symbol in wing/door mirrors for when someone is in your blind spot already.
The dutch reach is just giving the forgetful something new to forget. It's nonsense made to give the appearance of policy makers trying to tackle danger to cyclists.
The only workable solution I see is to move the door handles in all new cars so you can't use them without looking behind you.
Although of course that would be an issue for people with mobility issues and there's still no guarantee that people will actually look.
I'd consider talking about and introducing the Dutch Reach does have some merit. Most drivers are actually reasonable people that don't want to cause any crashes, so there'll be at least some people that will take it on board and the very act of turning to look makes it a more deliberate action than just simply opening the door. It's worth teaching and re-inforcing as it could easily save someone from a lot of hurt.
And of course Chris mentioned traffic first.
The Dutch reach gives the door opener a vision of approaching massive chunks of metal that could kill or injure them, let alone ripping the door off their precious vehicle. Start with the self interest, then maybe mention the cyclist...
"Most drivers are actually reasonable people that don't want to cause any crashes" as evidenced by the fact that you hardly ever see a motorist using a phone whilst driving, breaking the speed limit, going through red traffic lights, parking on double yellow lines, passing cyclists too close etc etc. Telling them which hand to use to open their door to keep us safe is absolute crap and we all knw it.
Surely he can cycle fast enough in primary?!
staring at his stem...?
too soon ?
He killed some old guy once, early in his career, out on his TT bike and staring at the stem. Ped steps out, boom - died later of his injuries.
Citation needed...
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-hits-pedestrian-in-italian-train...
Don't know about this becoming a fatality, but the bit about hitting a pedestrian on a training ride in 2012 is true.
If you can't read the article it says pedestrian injuries were not thought to be life threatening. No mention of TT or road bike. The article does not apportion blame.
Well this is the problem when people write stuff on the internet like "he killed some old guy once", anyone can Google "chris froome italy pedestrian accident" and see the first result reporting the accident; scrolling further to the 8th result, an extract from his autobiography "The Climb" published 2 years later where he describes the incident, the police fine and the pedestrian's recovery. So unless the pedestrian died some years later (and a complete press blackout on one of the world's top sportsmen killing somebody), or this is one of many similar incidents, I'm sceptical as to whether "he killed some old guy once" - unless this is a poor attempt to shoehorn in a reference to the "danger" of TT bikes.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zurJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT294&lpg=PT294&dq=c...
Well I think we have set the record straight.
I presume Paul just 'misremembered' something.
I'm yet to be convinced by the Dutch Reach - it always seems to me that the car's pillars create a very effective blind spot just where you need to be checking. A look in the wing/door mirror (delete as appropriate) seems much more effective.
I suppose the Dutch Reach might act as a trigger to remind you to think about checking for cyclists, and given I imagine the vast majority of doorings occur because the person opens their door without thinking in the slightest, I guess that's an improvement.
The Dutch reach is important for passengers - opening off side rear doors and in those few situations where cycle lanes are between the pavement and parked cars (one of those on my commute). Front passengers don't have the correct angle for the door mirror and rear passengers have no mirror at all.
the dutch reach covers just one scenario, and the whole thing of caring for other road users is what needs to change.
I once asked a work colleague that if he saw a small child skipping on a narrow pavement, would he give them more room when driving by - he said "No, it was up to the parents to control their child" I found that shocking, but unfortunately thats the attitude that needs to change completely. The only way to do that is change default responsibility in EVERY case, and make penalties much larger, such that its then clear that everyone should do everything they can to avoid an accident, whereas now we seem to say "oh accidents can happen, I just happened to kill that cyclist , but it was an accident"
I think that's what the hierarchy of road users is designed to do. It will take a while to bed in and become accepted I suspect but I'm pretty sure a few well publicised prosecutions would help to speed up matters.
As for not taking more care around a child playing on the pavement, I'm afraid I can't get my head around that. I'd be 2m away from the kerb (my reponsibility under the new hierarchy) and accepting abuse from drivers just seeing it as holding them up.
Angry driver: "Who do you think you are, Chris Froome training for the Tour de France?!? Oh...."