Chris Froome was afraid on the Mont Ventoux at this year's Tour de France. The Brit was not only desperate when he realized that he could no longer use his bike but he also feared a rather serious injury.

Several months after the accident, the Sky captain reveals that he suffered from a sore back in the following days. At some point, the pain was so bad that he decided to have it checked, of course secretly to prevent rivals from becoming aware of a possible weakness. Four days after the incident, he was brought secretly to the hospital to carry out radiological controls. 

"For all the days following the accident I had a terrible backache. I thought I had broken a vertebra or something like that as it was painful,” Spaziociclismo reports his as saying at the start of L'Etape Australia, an amateur race organized by ASO. “I spent the entire evening in the hospital to make sure there was nothing. It was also quite serious, but when you're in the race, you do not want to show any weakness or give any hope to your rivals, so we kept it secret. To tell your rivals that you are injured is like throwing a kitten among wolves…”