“He's out of the race. Obviously it's devastating for Chris and for the team. We knew it was going to be a tough race. We really believed in Chris and his ability to win this race. But it's not to be this year. In Richie Porte, we have a very capable, viable leader in the team. When you have a day like today, when you have a setback you have to roll ahead and go again, you have recalibrate your goals and you go again. Richie Porte came on the Tour to be the team leader number two and he showed great ability to ride the cobbles the way he did,” he said.
Brailsford was unable to give more details immediately about Froome's condition.
“I think we'll get the full details later. It was all a bit chaotic. But I'm sure he'll be back. It's part of this sport, sometimes you get knocked down. He was fit to start, he was in pain, there's no denying it. But the injury he sustained today was on the other side.”
The man who took Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome to win the Tour for Team Sky two years in succession admitted the cobbled stage had been an exciting race in spite of their misfortunes.
“It was exciting, wasn't it? You've got to say that when you see the way Nibali rode, it was very impressive. It's just unbelievable to ride away from Cancellara and Sagan on the cobbles. That was exciting. We'll remember it for a long time. But we're very happy to have Richie out there. The fight in the mountain lies ahead.Richie is in great shape. He had a slower start to the season than usual but he's fresh. The reason we decided to call him as our second leader was his climbing abilities. Today was a big challenge and he did ever so well.”
