Chris Froome seems certain not to race again this season but could end it with a seventh Grand Tour title all the same.
As the Team Ineos rider awoke following a six-hour operation to treat multiple fractures suffered in a horror crash, news broke that 2011 Vuelta a Espana winner Juan Jose Cobo has been found guilty of a doping offence and stands to lose his title.
That could elevate Froome to a second Vuelta win, and make him the first British Grand Tour winner, some 10 months before Sir Bradley Wiggins won the 2012 Tour de France.
