Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is set to miss the 2023 race after being left out of Israel-Premier Tech's eight-man squad.
The 38-year-old has been unable to return to his best form since being hospitalised with multiple fractures in 2019 following a high-speed training crash.
Froome suffered a broken right femur, a broken elbow and broken ribs in the incident and ultimately left Team Ineos at the end of the 2020 season to join Israel-Premier Tech, then known as Israel Start-Up Nation.
Since recovering from his devastating crash, Froome placed 133rd in the general classification at the 2021 Tour de France and entered the 2022 race, but he was forced to withdraw after contracting COVID-19.
The Briton had announced his desire to race for Israel-Premier Tech at this year's Tour de France, but he has been left out of the ranks, with Michael Woods, Dylan Teuns, Simon Clarke, Hugo Houle, Nick Schultz, Krists Neilands, Corbin Strong and Guillaume Boivin making up the squad.
"It was a tough decision to select our Tour de France team this year but we feel we selected eight riders best suited to fulfilling our performance objectives," IPT General Manager Kjell Carlstrom said in a statement.
"The fact that we had a difficult decision to make when looking at our long list shows the strength and depth of our rider group, and unfortunately we could not select everyone.
"We carefully looked at the necessary roles to fill when it comes to hunting for stage wins and chose our eight riders accordingly.
"The team is versatile and balanced and the guys can be impacting the race in almost any stage throughout the race. After the last few months of nice results, we're eager to see what we can achieve in what will most certainly be a very competitive race."
Froome, who also missed the 2023 Giro d'Italia, has only competed at four of the last 14 Grand Tour events, most recently finishing 114th overall at the 2022 Vuelta a Espana.
The two-time Olympic bronze medallist won the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and took part in the Tour de Romandie in April, placing 97th as compatriot Adam Yates took the general classification title. body check tags ::
