This feature at INDYCAR.com showcases special or returning liveries that teams will race at NTT INDYCAR SERIES events this season.
This installment focuses on the season-ending Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot on Sunday, Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Conor Daly – Juncos Hollinger Racing
Daly’s No. 76 Chevrolet (photo, above) will feature the popular rock band The All-American Rejects, which is performing during the pre-race party Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway. The band also performed this year at Miller Lite Carb Day during the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, and lead singer Tyson Ritter rode in the Fastest Seat in Sports leading the field to the green flag late last month at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Louis Foster – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Frequent 2025 primary sponsor Desnuda Tequila is bringing a new-look black-and-gold livery to Nashville for the No. 45 Honda (photo, top) driven by Foster, who is locked in a tight race with Robert Shwartzman for series Rookie of the Year honors.
Kyle Kirkwood – Andretti Global
Kirkwood will look for his fourth victory of this breakout season in the No. 27 Honda (photo, above) with Sam’s Club branding and colors.
Christian Lundgaard – Arrow McLaren
Title sponsor Velo is featuring this colorful new scheme for the No. 7 Chevrolet (photo, above) driven by Lundgaard, who is trying to catch Scott Dixon for third in the final standings to conclude his best season to date.
Felix Rosenqvist – Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian
FRO’s season of music-themed liveries for his No. 60 Honda (photo, above), part of Meyer Shank’s partnership with SiriusXM, ends this weekend with a Maximum Metallica livery inspired by the legendary hard rock band’s classic “Ride the Lightning” album.
Rinus VeeKay – Dale Coyne Racing
Dale Coyne Racing is getting a head start on next season by running its 2026 livery on the No. 18 Honda (photo, above) driven by VeeKay this weekend as part of an expanded partnership with businessman Todd Ault announced Friday.
After tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches.
This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination.
In reality the Arteta era has brought fresh energy, the team regeared, Champions League status re-established. The winning of cups and pots is hostage to endless variables. The best does not rule out the good. Others must also succeed.
By the same token the idea of early-season title deciders is best dismissed as punditry gush, marketing pitch, whiffle around the lighted dais. What can August really tell us? Most teams are in flux right now. Are Chelsea good? Nobody knows. Winter into spring remains the real testing ground, the moment players and managers are asked to stare a little deeper into their own reflection.
And yet, and yet, and yet, sometimes all these things can actually be true, or close to true. And Liverpool versus Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday afternoon really does look like a key note, not just in terms of final points tallies, but in Arteta’s own trajectory. Because something does need to shift here.
There is by now something a little haunting about the uncertainty around this team’s ultimate endpoint, something tender and unformed about the sight of Arteta out there on the touchline in the same primly tailored black jacket and shoes, like a police sniper trying to blend in at a parents’ evening, revolving his hands in that familiar choreography of alarm and dismay.
What are we looking at here? What role is Arteta destined to play? Is he the architect of an era? Is he Prince Hamlet? Just another ensemble player? Perhaps even the fool, the man who talked endlessly about winning but somehow forgot to win, the coach who made his players listen to You’ll Never Walk Alone while they trained before one of his early trips to Anfield, then went up there and dutifully lost 4-0?
There are good reasons to regard Sunday as a genuine opportunity to shape that dynamic. For a start this isn’t really the third game of a new season. For Arteta it is instead the 117th game of 152, three seasons of work on the same host body that have led in a straight line to this point.
Viktor Gyökeres bullocks and breaks lines in scoring his goals. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
And this is the kind of game that can offer a genuine point of ignition. Liverpool are a perfect example of how that can work. There is an on-this-day point here, the kind of Ominous Anniversary stuff football loves to weave into its stories. On Sunday it will be almost exactly six years since an Arsenal team managed by Arteta’s predecessor also travelled to Anfield.
That Jürgen Klopp Liverpool team were at a similar point in their lifespan to the current Arsenal: also coming off three seasons of progress, also desperate to end a title drought, also rebalanced around some key recent signings.
In the event Liverpool ran right over Unai Emery’s team, won 3-1, strolled about the place bathed in champion aura, and obliterated the rest of the field from that point. That fixture was, like this one, the third Premier League game of the season. It was also, and here we must cue the eerie, conspiratorial music, Klopp’s own 117th league game of his first three full seasons in charge.
At this point the comparison falls away into pattern seeking and general numberwang. Liverpool were champions of Europe at that point. Klopp had been at Liverpool for three full seasons. Arteta has five under his belt. Klopp was also an established alpha manager, winning the league something that always seemed stitched into the arc. Arteta is not this. He’s a chalk sketch, an idea waiting to happen. But the league is also a little different now. And Arteta has a chance to learn something else from Arne Slot’s luminous debut season last year.
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Arsenal’s early run is tough. Anfield this weekend is followed by Nottingham Forest and Manchester City at home and Newcastle away. It will be a high-wire act to get through this more or less intact while bedding in new players. But it is already clear other teams will drop points, that the season is generally more random and rushed and squeezed.
Last season Arsenal began like a damp box of matches, dropping 12 points in their first 10 games. This time around they have an opportunity to assert from the off what seems undeniably true, that they have the best-balanced squad of any top team, and in the process take the season by the throat as Liverpool did last time.
More to the point, there really are no excuses now. Arsenal have all the tools. Even injuries look like opportunities. Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard may be out? Well, here come Eze, Gyökeres and Noni Madueke, all of whom may have played in any case, and who may even be an upgrade in the right form.
The midfield looks strong. The defence is set. The goalkeeper is good. Best of all Arsenal’s signings are coherent. They address omissions. A team that have seemed at times trapped within their own structures, chasing the game with all the carefree abandon of a fly buzzing down a window pane, have brought in specialist risk takers.
Eze is a genuinely inventive attacker, who needs to be encouraged simply to be this again, to be it more, to the max. The questions around Gyökeres have been along the lines of: is he an Arteta player? The point is that he shouldn’t fit too snugly. He should be awkward.
If Gyökeres is physical and boisterous then this is a good thing in a team that can spend a little too long sharpening its scalpel. The goals he scores will tend to be the kind Arsenal wouldn’t have scored before. He bullocks and breaks lines. He does this quite often from the left. Just having a threat on that side may unlock something else in Saka, the world’s most double-teamed man.
All of which sounds encouraging in outline. But fixing your weaknesses creates its own pressure and a significanttype of pressure for a coach who has measured out his managerial life so far in almost-but-not-quites. For Arsenal taking the league to the wire this time will be a question of will, fearlessness, the readiness to lean into those new strengths.
Sunday is an obvious first chance. Liverpool will still be favourites to win the game. They’re the champions. They haven’t lost to Arsenal at home since the pre-Klopp era 13 years ago. The new attack looks thrillingly potent. But they have also shown their weaknesses this season. Liverpool’s midfield has looked open. At Newcastle on Monday night there was a slight sense of muddle under the barrage of high balls. Gyökeres and Eze, who may make his debut, are good against opponents who like to have the ball and keep a high line.
There is at the very least an opportunity here for Arsenal; if not to decide anything right now, then to show a willingness to dare and to feel their own moment flicker a little closer.
Still what might be considered a stripling with features soft as yet unweathered by age and competition yet with an undoubted inner steel, Oscar Piastri presents a fascinating dichotomy. The young Australian is in a two-horse race to be Formula One world champion this year and his youth, personable nature and easy, dry wit belie a driver possessed of exceptional maturity and the clinical execution familiar in the sport’s greats.
Piastri has given every indication he could join them and the resolute determination of the man who would be king is palpable.
“I have emotions, I still feel everything that everyone else feels. It’s just that, being blunt, I think a lot of emotions are not that helpful,” he says with candour.
Which admission may be considered a little shocking from many 24-year-olds but it is an integral part of what has propelled Piastri to a two-way title fight with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. The Australian currently leads by nine points going into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix after a tight fight marked by his equanimity, where he has taken setbacks and victories with the same, almost preternatural calm.
“I don’t think there’s any point dwelling on anything longer than you have to,” he says. “It’s important sometimes to get that frustration out, to celebrate, to do whatever, but just because you won last weekend or just because you lost last weekend doesn’t mean that the same thing is going to happen this weekend.”
This season, only his third in F1, has been revelatory, marked by this even-handed approach and a ruthless consistent delivery that have brought him six wins and six podiums in 14 races. After a spin in the wet in the season-opener at Melbourne, an error promptly consigned to the dustbin of history by the Australian, Piastri has delivered with pretty much impeccable precision.
In only his third season in Formula One, Oscar Piastri has driven to six wins and six podium places this year. Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
His race engineer, Tom Stallard, the former Olympic rowing silver medallist, has described him as notable for being both “calm and intense”. While the architect of McLaren’s success, team principal Andrea Stella, summed up his strengths after a dominant win in Bahrain earlier this season by aptly noting: “No hesitations, no inaccuracies, everything that was available he capitalised on.”
Piastri’s attitude might be considered somewhat cold-blooded. As a person, he is clearly anything but. However, the strategy is doubtless effective. It’s an approach sport psychologists would recognise but it seems one honed by circumstance as he single-handedly pursued his career having moved to the UK when he was 14. His father, Chris was with him for six months, before returning to Australia and after which Piastri looked after himself.
“There’s definitely been a lot of lessons through experiences, when you’ve been racing for 15 years now, there’s a lot of tough moments in there,” he says. “There’s obviously the challenges of just going racing but then there’s the challenges of moving from home. Learning how to navigate life alongside racing, being far away from your family and friends, which I’m sure has moulded me to some degree as well.
“I never had any dramatic life experiences in my childhood but even just little things of having to make decisions for yourself and problem-solve. Once I learned to control things I could control and not worry about everything else in life it probably naturally translated to racing.”
That was on display in Baku last year when Piastri gave a masterclass of driving control under enormous pressure. Having taken the lead from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, he then defended it for 30 laps as the Monegasque driver ducked and dived and all but hurled himself at the Australian’s gearbox. To no avail as Piastri took his second and still perhaps the best win of his career. His reaction to Stallard was a simple, unflustered exclamation of “Yes!” over the radio as he took the flag.
Table of points won by Piastri and Norris
There is depth here too. Piastri is a thoughtful character and slowly considers a response when asked how he assesses himself and his approach. “There’s obviously all the work that goes on behind the scenes of how to actually drive a race car fast,” he says. “But an important thing is always kind of dissociating the results of a weekend from how I felt I performed.
“So there’s been races I’ve won this year or in my career that I would probably rank as worse performances than races I’ve finished fourth or fifth. Just getting myself in the right mindset, essentially being quite calm, quite relaxed is what I think I need.”
Comparisons then have unsurprisingly been made between Piastri and Alain Prost – “The Professor” – and they are valid on many levels. The Australian is as measured a perfectionist on track in the mould of the four-time champion Frenchman and with a similarly calculating and considered air. Ten race meetings remain in the run-in, each of which could be vital in the title fight and much as Piastri knows it, he remains unconcerned.
Oscar Piastri (right) insists that he and his teammate Lando Norris will stay friends during their battle for the title. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images
“There is going to naturally be tension,” he says. “There’s naturally going to be pressure and emotions from that but it doesn’t necessarily weigh heavily on me. I’m honestly just more excited. If I was not in a championship fight, I’d be trying to attack things the same way. Obviously the tension around the position we’re in is naturally going to be higher but I’d be trying to do the same thing regardless of where I am in the championship.”
That there is more to the young man than an iron will over his emotions, however, is also clear by Piastri’s popularity. His laid-back public persona is engaging and likable and has struck a chord with F1’s new generation of young, enthusiastic fans, a demographic in which Norris too shares a similar popularity. One of them will be champion and the pair have, unusually, remained friendly even as they are going head to head this season. But will it last?
“There’s obviously going to be tension at points, ultimately we’re fighting for something that we’ve both dreamed of since we were kids,” says Piastri. “But our relationship is honestly probably stronger than it has been from the start. There’s obviously going to be a loser to this championship and that’s going to be not that pleasant for whoever that is but however this championship goes it’s been a good fight already and I think there’ll be a lot of respect both ways.”
No exaggerated theatrics then, simply a very reasonable kid, being eminently reasonable. Which is Piastri writ large. There will not be histrionics in what is likely to be a nail-biting contest but rather the poker-face of a player at ease with himself amid the maelstrom of a hopefully memorable title fight.
Manchester United vs Burnley: Premier League Preview and Prediction
Ruben Amorim heads into the Premier League clash between Manchester United and Burnley under real pressure. His record of just 16 wins in 45 matches is not what many at Old Trafford expected when he took charge, and with Burnley visiting this weekend, there is little room for error. A defeat before the international break would place the Portuguese manager in an even more precarious position.
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Burnley, by contrast, will travel to Manchester with a renewed sense of belief. Their opening day defeat to Tottenham had raised fears of another difficult season, but victory over Sunderland last weekend lifted spirits and gave Vincent Kompany’s side something to build on.
Match Details and Kick-off Time
Manchester United vs Burnley takes place at Old Trafford on Saturday 30 August 2025, with kick-off set for 3pm BST. Supporters in the UK will not be able to watch the game live due to the traditional blackout on Saturday afternoons.
Fans can follow updates through highlights, which will be available from 5.15pm on the Sky Sports app and YouTube channel. Match of the Day will also feature extended coverage on BBC One at 10.20pm.
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Manchester United and Burnley Team News
Amorim rang the changes in midweek as Manchester United were dumped out of the Carabao Cup. Seven alterations were made, though the introduction of Bryan Mbeumo, Bruno Fernandes and Matthijs de Ligt at half-time failed to turn the tide in a 2-0 defeat. Those players are expected to start against Burnley.
Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko both played the full 120 minutes plus penalties in that game, so they are likely to be rested. Mason Mount should return to the starting line-up, while Casemiro is also pushing to feature after being left on the bench. Andre Onana endured a difficult evening against Grimsby, but remains Amorim’s first choice ahead of Altay Bayindir.
Burnley have their own concerns. Jordan Beyer and Connor Roberts are hoping to return, though Zeki Amdouni and Manuel Benson remain sidelined and are not expected back soon.
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Prediction and Head-to-Head Record
Prediction: Manchester United 3-0 Burnley.
Historically, United have enjoyed the better of this fixture. Out of 137 meetings, Manchester United have recorded 67 wins, Burnley have managed 45, and 25 have ended in draws.
While Alex Palou clinched his fourth NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship with two races to spare earlier this month, the race for the series’ Rookie of the Year honor is tight and will come down to the season-ending Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot on Sunday, Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing leads Robert Shwartzman of PREMA Racing by eight points in the series standings in one of the tightest Rookie of the Year battles in recent years.
Here’s a look at the 2025 seasons of these two top rookies, in tale-of-the-tape boxing style:
LOUIS FOSTER
Hometown: Odiham, England
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Entry at Nashville: No. 45 Desnuda Tequila Honda
Starts: 16
2025 Points: 203 (21st overall)
Best Finish: 11th (Road America, Indianapolis GP)
Best Start: Pole (Road America)
Top-10 Finishes: 0
Races Led: 3
Laps Led: 5
Laps Completed: 1,954 out of 2,230
Races Running at the Finish: 13 of 16
2025 Oval Points: 69
What He’s Saying:“Throughout the year, I haven’t really been too focused (on the Rookie of the Year race). I’ve known where I was, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I just tried to do the best I could overall. Now, it definitely feels like an uphill battle to retain it even though we’re leading. I’m going to do the best I can and try to stay ahead. We’re obviously aware of where Robert (Shwartzman) is the entire time.”
What He’s Saying: “I really appreciate the Rookie of the Year, and it’s a good thing. But I generally focus on how to make my team and my car good because I want to believe that we’re going to continue (together) next year, and I want to come to a stage where we’re going to do it again. The Rookie of the Year, it’s a good thing. It’s a nice addition. It’s a nice bonus.”
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has admitted that the rollercoaster nature of the job “sometimes” makes him want to quit, alternated with a desire to stay for “20 years”.
There was quiet optimism surrounding United during the summer, with Amorim finally getting the time he didn’t have last season to implement his specific tactical system, as well as handed a completely new front three in the hunt for goals: Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Šeško.
But the season has been a slow burner so far, with the Red Devils unable to translate dominance into points in an opening defeat against Arsenal, and playing out a 1–1 draw with Fulham. On Wednesday night, United were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Grimsby Town, three leagues below.
Amorim made damning comments in the wake of the cup tie, stating that “something has to change”. But, speaking on Friday before the weekend’s Premier League clash with Burnley at Old Trafford, he suggested it was a raw response to losing.
Amorim has endured a number of difficult nights. / Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
2025 Summer Transfer Window: Total Premier League Spend. dark. Next. Total PL Spend
“To be really honest with you guys every time we had, or have in the future, one defeat like [Grimsby], I’m going to be like that,” the Portuguese coach explained. “I’m going to say sometimes I hate, sometimes I love my players, sometimes I want to defend my players. This is my way of doing things and I’m going to be like that. Sometimes I want to quit, sometimes I want to be here for 20 years.
“I felt in that moment, I was so frustrated and annoyed. I know you have a lot of experienced people talking about the way I should perform with the media—to be more constant, to be more calm. I’m not going to be like that. I am trying to accept that, I’m going to be who I am. That’s why I have the passion that I have. In that moment, I was really upset and really disappointed, because I felt like we had a good pre-season, we were playing better, we were being consistent in the way we played.
“We played badly [for] 30 minutes against Fulham, and then that kind of performance [at Grimsby], I was really disappointed with everything. But now, it’s a new game and I’m focused on that.”
Having beaten Aston Villa at Old Trafford on the final day of last season, United are searching for only a second home league win since February 26, when Ipswich Town were the visitors.
Amorim has selection decisions to make ahead of the Burnley clash, with Šeško still awaiting his full Premier League debut—the Slovenian started against Grimsby in midweek. André Onana also returned in the cup but it remains to be seen if he will continue to play second fiddle to Altay Bayındır in the league.
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The Blue Tigers went on to double their lead eight minutes later and the second goal also stemmed from another throw-in, this time worked short. Muhammad Uvais exchanged passes with Chhangte before swinging the ball into the box.
Even though Muhammad Uvais’ cross was slightly overhit, Anwar Ali recovered well to whip in a precise delivery for Rahul Bheke, whose thumping header was parried by the goalkeeper.
The rebound, though, dropped invitingly to Sandesh Jhingan, who made no mistake from close range to make it 2-0.
Tajikistan looked to respond through set-pieces and pulled one back in the 23rd minute after some combination play near the box helped set up Shahrom Samiev, who got the better of Sandesh Jhingan before slotting into the net to halve the deficit.
Anwar Ali had another chance to reopen India’s two-goal lead three minutes later but his volley was tipped away by the Tajikistan goalkeeper.
As the second half came to a close, the hosts continued their search for an equaliser and got half-chances through a couple of set-pieces. India’s defence, though, held firm to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
The hosts came out for the second half with greater attacking intent and had India on the back foot, forcing custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu into making a flurry of saves inside the first 10 minutes.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, in fact, proved to be a thorn in the side of Tajikistan for the rest of the half as he continued to thwart the hosts’ attacks.
Tajikistan had a golden chance to equalise in the 72nd minute after Vikram Partap Singh conceded a penalty. Rustam Soirov stepped up to the spot and looked to slot the ball to the left but Gurpreet denied him with his leg to keep India’s lead intact.
Substitute Mahesh Singh Naorem tried to put the game to bed for India in the 86th minute with a strong effort from distance that forced the goalkeeper into conceding a corner.
Tajikistan’s final chance to find an equaliser came in injury time when a floating ball into the box found Vahdat Hanonov, who couldn’t keep his header on target.
The Blue Tigers will take on world No. 20 Islamic Republic of Iran in their next CAFA Nations Cup match on Monday.
New-look Manchester City will try to rebound from their first setback of the season on Sunday (9 am ET), when they travel to the south coast of England to take on struggling Brighton.
WATCH —Brighton vs Manchester City
Man City (6th, 3 points) were comprehensively beaten 2-0 by Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and it was notably the expensive summer signings who struggled their ways through from first to last whistle. Midfielders Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders (signed for a combined $108 million) struggled with the tempo and physicality of Spurs as the visitors bossed the midfield and City struggled to create chances despite having 61 percent of possession. Goalkeeper James Trafford ($36 million this summer) also had a rough outing as he practically gave the ball to Spurs inside his own penalty area for a goal, not to mention a few more nervy moments in the first two games.
Brighton (18th, 1 point), a club constantly rebuilding and reloading, are in the midst of another difficult transition period following Joao Pedro’s move to Chelsea ($82 million). 180 Premier League minutes later, the typically soaring Seagulls have just one goal (from the penalty spot) despite amassing 3.8 xG against Everton and Fulham. Fabian Hurzler’s side scored the 5th-most goals (66) in the Premier League as Pedro provided 10 goals, 6 assists last season.
For live updates and highlights throughout Brighton vs Manchester City, check out PST’s live blog coverage below.
How to watch Brighton vs Manchester City live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 9 am ET, Sunday Venue: Amex Stadium — Brighton TV Channel: Peacock Streaming: Stream live on Peacock
Brighton team news, focus
OUT: Julio Enciso (knee), Adam Webster (knee), Solly March (knee) | QUESTIONABLE: Georginio Rutter (undisclosed)
The Spaniard Juan Ayuso showed a remarkable recovery after his collapse in the Pyrenees only 24 hours previously to go it alone on the climb to the finish and triumph in stage seven of the Vuelta a España.
Torstein Træen retains the red jersey, holding a 2min 33sec lead over Jonas Vingegaard, who moved from fifth to second in the standings but without closing the gap to the Norwegian.
Ayuso, tipped to be one of the main challengers to Vingegaard, the pre-race favourite, had slipped way down the general classification after being dropped on the final climb on Thursday, but was back to his best on the 188km ride from Andorra la Vella to Cerler. The Italian Marco Frigo crossed the line more than one minute behind Ayuso in second, with another Spaniard, Raúl García Pierna, third.
Ayuso broke away early in the stage before he was joined by a group of 11 riders, including his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Jay Vine, the . Ayuso made his telling move 11km from the finish.
The 22-year-old, who finished third overall in 2022 and fourth the following year, was just eight seconds behind the then leader, Vingegaard, in second place before Thursday’s downfall. While Ayuso is still almost seven and a half minutes off the red jersey, he has managed to win his first individual Vuelta stage, following up the team time trial victory on stage five.
“It’s amazing to win a stage in the Vuelta, which is my favourite race,” Ayuso said. “The way I won the race, I will remember always. I’m super-proud.”
Vingegaard had managed to get away from Træen in the final kilometres, but the Bahrain Victorious cyclist fought back. “It was a decent day,” the Dane said. “It was not an easy day and we wanted to try to save our energy a bit, so we decided not to do anything today.”
Saturday’s stage eight will be a flat 163.5km ride from Monzón Templario to Zaragoza.
Elsewhere, there was positive news regarding the condition of Chris Froome, with Israel-Premier Tech posting that the British cyclist was in “good spirits” after successful surgery following a crash in the south of France that left him with a fractured vertebrae, collapsed lung and five broken ribs.
Froome, 40, crashed while on a training ride on Wednesday and was airlifted to hospital in Toulon, about 100 miles from his home in Monaco.
Chris Froome has had surgery after a serious crash on Wednesday. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA
A statement from Israel-Premier Tech said: “Chris has successfully undergone surgery after his recent injuries. The procedures went as planned, and Chris is currently recovering in hospital under the care of his medical team. He is in good spirits and grateful for the excellent medical support he has received. Chris and his family would like to thank fans, friends, and the cycling community for their concern and kind messages during this time.”
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Froome’s injuries will end his season and could mean the end of one of the most successful Grand Tour careers in cycling’s history, with the four-time Tour de France champion in the final months of the five-year contract he signed when he left Ineos Grenadiers to join Israel Premier-Tech before the 2021 campaign.
Froome also won the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and the Vuelta a España in both 2011 and 2017 – all with Team Sky. Only four men have more Tour de France titles, with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin all five-time winners. Only Merckx, Anquetil and Hinault have more than Froome’s seven Grand Tour titles, which leave him tied with Induráin, Alberto Contador and Fausto Coppi.
However, Froome has never recovered his best form since a serious crash during the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné, which left him in intensive care with a fractured femur, elbow, ribs and pelvis.
The last of his 46 professional career wins came at the 2018 Giro and his best result since that 2019 crash was third place on stage 12 of the 2022 Tour de France to Alpe d’Huez as Tom Pidcock took victory.
Froome broke his collarbone at the UAE Tour in February and had previously hinted that 2025 could be his final year of competitive racing. He last raced at the Tour of Poland this month, finishing 68th overall.
