Chris Froome has left hospital to start his recovery from extensive injuries suffered in a crash during the Criterium du Dauphine last week.Froome’s bike hit a wall at almost 35 miles per hour during a reconnaissance ride for the fourth stage in France.The Team Ineos racer had been treated at the University Hospital of St Etienne, where he underwent a six-hour operation to repair a fractured right femur, broken hip, fractured elbow and fractured ribs.It was also reported Froome, 34, had fractured his neck.This is just the first step to what will be a long recovery. Unfortunately I’m not yet able to go home, but at least I’ll have an opportunity to get a visit from my kids 💕— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 20, 2019The four-time Tour de France champion posted an update on Thursday afternoon as he prepared to begin the long road to recovery.“As my time at @ChuSaintEtienne has come to an end, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the doctors & nurses for the exceptional care provided to me,” Froome said on Twitter.“It’s been a rough week but I appreciate you having made it as comfortable as possible for me. View this post on Instagram “This is obviously a tough time but I have taken a lot of strength from the support over the last three days. The outpouring of support has been really humbling and something I would never have expected.” Tap the link in bio for a special ‘thank you’ from @ChrisFroome ❤️A post shared by Team INEOS (@teamineos) on Jun 15, 2019 at 7:39am PDT“This is just the first step to what will be a long recovery. Unfortunately I’m not yet able to go home, but at least I’ll have an opportunity to get a visit from my kids”.Froome’s team-mate Geraint Thomas suffered an injury scare in a crash which forced him to withdraw from the Tour de Suisse earlier this week.However, the 33-year-old Welshman remains optimistic about his chances of defending his Tour de France title when the action begins in Brussels on July 6.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '9299ba6f-55a7-45fc-a28b-8c1427212542'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:cycling,sport:other'); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Froome leaves hospital after Criterium du Dauphine crash'});