The four-time Tour de France winner, Chris Froome, has been forced to delay his preparations for the 2022 season due to a knee injury. Froome has revealed he damaged a tendon in his knee during pre-season training. “I’ve just got back from doing some scans at the hospital,” the British cyclist said on his YouTube channel. “For the last 10 days or so I’ve been getting quite a bit of pain on the outside of my knee while I’m pedalling.” “Unfortunately I think just getting back into training these past couple of weeks I might have been a little bit too keen, pushing a little bit too much,” Froome added. “This was after a few weeks off the bike and maybe the body wasn’t ready to push that hard. It’s flared up and caused a bit of inflammation.” “What it means is I’m going to have to take the best part of a week off the bike before starting very gradually,” the 36-year-old continued. “It’s definitely a setback for me. I’m not too sure where I’m going to start the racing year and it’s going to push everything back slightly.” Froome is no stranger to injuries having broken his femur, elbow, hip and ribs in a 2019 crash while training for the Critérium du Dauphiné in Roanne, France. Having won the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Froome returned to the race in 2021 with Israel Start-up Nation after three years away. Michael Woods was preferred to Froome as the team leader, and Froome’s hopes of placing well overall were hit on the first stage, when he picked up injuries in a late crash. He went on to finish 133rd, and also took part in the Critérium, Volta a Catalunya and Tour of Romandie last year.