The 33-year-old was ruled out of even competing in the grandest of cycling's three tours after suffering extensive injuries in a crash during the Criterium du Dauphine last month.

Chris Froome has become the 2011 Spanish Vuelta winner because of Juan Jose Cobo's disqualification for blood doping. Cobo did not meet a deadline to challenge his three-year ban.

MATT LAWTON ON THE COL DU TOURMALET: Owner of Ineos Jim Ratcliffe must have sat in the team car on Saturday afternoon and wondered if he had just bought a cycling team in decline.

Chris Froome has returned to training just six weeks after a crash in a training ride left him in intensive care. The 34-year-old suffered a broken leg, elbow and multiple broken ribs in Roanne last month.

Chris Froome is back in hospital again after cutting his thumb with a kitchen knife. Froome's hopes of a record-equalling fifth Tour title this year were ended in violent fashion in June when he crashed heavily.

Tour de France organisers put a spring in the step of the climbers after unveiling the 2020 route featuring a mountain stage on the second day and one time trial on the eve of the final Champs Elysees parade.

Nine months after his career almost ended in a bone-splintering crash into a French garden wall, Froome's comeback to cycling gets going in the desert setting of the UAE Tour on Sunday.

DAVID COVERDALE IN BERLIN: All riders in the race, including four-time Tour de France champion Froome, were in lockdown in their Abu Dhabi hotel rooms and were awaiting testing for the disease.

Newcastle United has a tradition where players and staff greet one another with a handshake every morning but manager Steve Bruce admitted: 'We've stopped on the advice of the doctor'.

Team INEOS has announced they are pulling out of all racing until the Volta a Catalunya on March 23.

Chris Froome has shown off his spectacular recovery from his horror leg break 10 months ago as he posted a video pushing hard on the exercise bike.

JANE FRYER: Exactly four years ago, a brand new, specially- designed post office opened in the back of the Dandelion gift shop on the gorgeous honey-stoned high street of this Cotswolds town.

During an alarmingly meandering and sweary after-dinner speech for online LGBT newspaper PinkNews earlier this month, Dawn Butler declared that almost all giraffes were gay.

JANE FRYER: Over the past six decades his art has embraced everything from German mythology to astronomy; maths to comparative religion; politics to war. And all the while, become bigger.

The Rev Chris is the hottest thing in the Church of England right now. Not just in terms of his fame - he has more than 117,000 Instagram followers and is a massive hit on YouTube channels.

JANE FRYER: Certainly it will be beautiful and awesome and, for those with binoculars and telescopes, there will be an awful lot to see.

A.N WILSON: Pays tribute to wine connoisseur Auberon Waugh in time for the republish of the 1980s Waugh On Wine - where Auberon says wine should have 'bizarre side-tastes' including rotting wood.

Theresa May's radical plans for tackling the crisis was a big mistake, but she was right to identify provision of social care in our ageing society as one of the greatest challenges facing the country.

Anyone tuning in to the airwaves over the weekend might be forgiven for believing Theresa May lost the election, while Jeremy Corbyn led Labour to a resounding victory.

What on Earth do Tory Remoaners think they are playing at? Don't they realise that by courting Labour support they could sink their party – and hand the keys of No 10 to Jeremy Corbyn?

Having ruined his own legacy with Project Fear, David Cameron has treacherously suggested that there will be 'pressure for a soft Brexit' following last week's election result. Has he no shame?

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: This was far more than just a bad and humiliating day for Theresa May and her deal. It was the day Brexit itself was pushed to the very brink.

Exactly 1,000 days ago today, the British electorate went to the ballot box for the EU referendum. How long ago it now seems! Today the dream, if not dead, is on life support.

Make no mistake, this is a catastrophic defeat. Indeed, in living memory, it is an unparalleled embarrassment for a serving British premier.

For the first time in 47 years, the country that gave the globe Magna Carta, parliamentary democracy, the industrial revolution and human rights, will once again be truly sovereign.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: The troubled Hundred format on which the England Cricket Board are placing so much importance is facing a critical fortnight.

CHARLES SALE - THE SPORTS AGENDA: A crucial meeting is scheduled for Friday to try and resolve the £150m impasse threatening to derail the Wembley sale.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: BBC are making significant changes to their flagship Sports Personality of the Year programme that turned into a shambles in Liverpool last year.

CHARLES SALE - THE SPORTS AGENDA: adidas invited all their English football clubs to their Munich headquarters last week to present future plans.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA: The most fascinating insight from a Ryder Cup pundit this week will be delivered by former European captain Ian Woosnam.

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA IN PARIS: It has emerged on the eve of the Ryder Cup that European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley earned a salary of £2.78million last year.

CHARLES SALE: Sky's continued coverage of the Ryder Cup for the next two tournaments is by far the most crucial aspect of their new four-year deal with the European Tour, agreed on the eve of the event.

Britain’s National Health Service has plainly been carefully targeted by internet highwaymen looking for easy victims. They did not choose the NHS because it was impoverished.

Chief Constables are not hired to change the law. They are hired to enforce it. Mike Barton, the Durham Police chief, needs to be sharply reminded of this, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY says.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Once again the country faces a moment of decision, but most of our elected, salaried politicians are not prepared to take that decision.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: If Mr Farage insists on pursuing his impossible dream of a perfect Brexit, he will not get it.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Boris Johnson is said to have been unhappy about imposing his lockdown on the country, and that his naturally liberal instincts are troubled by it.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Our hearts go out to the frontline staff in the NHS who face dangers as great as any endured by soldiers in battle.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Leaks from inside Whitehall suggest that senior Ministers, in the absence of Boris Johnson, are reluctant to take any major decisions.

The Grammy award-winning composer says the R&B superstar took her role as lioness Nala in the upcoming Disney remake 'very seriously' and he has hailed her new track Spirit.

The songstress, 37, sings about living a life of purpose as she kisses and cuddles her daughter at the foot of a majestic waterfall in the new video. Beyoncé's song Spirit was released on July 10.

She, along with Naomi Campbell and Kelly Rowland, were called out in the new track. And Lupita Nyong'o was excited when she heard her name in Beyonce's song, Brown Skin Girl.

Disney knows success when it sees it, and the mass media conglomerate is looking to lock that success down with bankable partnerships.

The 37-year-old singer and actress took to her Instagram on Friday to share several snaps from a sultry shoot.

The photo was historic in its own right, as photographer Tyler Mitchell was the first-ever African-American person to shoot a cover for Vogue in its 125 years in print.

Beyonce's fans are convinced she is pregnant with her fourth child after the superstar set the rumour mill alight by uploading a series of pictures from her Hamptons getaway.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z enjoyed some sweet family time with a beach picnic on Sunday. The couple were spotted with their twins, Sir and Rumi, one, while lounging around in The Hamptons.

The list of highest paid female entertainers in the music industry for 2019 has been released by Forbes, and the results pack some surprises. Taylor Swift led the way by over $100 million.

Beyoncé celebrated her 38th birthday a few days early with husband Jay-Z backstage at the Made In America Festival in Philadelphia on Sunday.

Beyonce was left speechless when her husband Jay Z surprised her with an early birthday cake at his Made In America Festival ahead of her 38th year around the sun later this week.