chris froome tour de france

Chris Froome's 'Monumental' Tour De France Win

Olympic champion Chris Hoy hails Froome's win as a "huge achievement", as he becomes the second British winner in as many years.

Sunday 21 July 2013 20:33, UK

Chris Froome's Tour de France win has been described as "monumental" by six-times Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy.

Froome won the 100th Tour de France title, finishing more than four minutes ahead of his closest rival in the overall standings.

The 28-year-old, who learned to ride on dirt tracks in Kenya, crossed the finish line in Paris arm-in-arm with his Team Sky colleagues to become the second Briton to win the title in consecutive years.

Sir Chris said: "It is a huge achievement and I almost feel sorry for Chris because people are almost getting blase about it.

"People think it is another British winner, so that is what we should expect - but if you take a step back and get some perspective, you can see what a monumental achievement it is for him to have done this."

Froome set off for the French capital in the leader's yellow jersey for the final stage of the Tour after more than 80 hours and 2,000 miles in the saddle.

He had to wait until he reached the Champs-Elysees to be crowned champion, but tradition dictates the leader is not threatened on the final day of Le Tour.

More from UK

King Charles returns to official public duties for first time since cancer diagnosis

Next SNP leader could be 'crowned', claim Tories - as John Swinney leads field

What happens now following Humza Yousaf's resignation as Scotland's first minister

After winning the title, Froome thanked his family, friends and teammates.

He said: "I'd like to dedicate this win to my late mother. Without her encouragement to follow my dreams I would probably be watching this at home on TV.

"This is a beautiful country, with the finest annual sporting event in the world ... and this is one yellow jersey that will stand the test of time."

Speaking after the finishing line, he said: "It brought tears to my eyes just coming over the line with the guys like that.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

"This really was an amazing way to finish off a fitting 100th edition of the Tour de France."

Froome's father, Clive, told Sky News the family was "thrilled to bits" about the win.

He added: "I think rather like Chris it was huge relief. We followed every single kilometre of the very lengthy three weeks and (it's) just huge relief he's there safe and sound, and delivered the goods."

Froome senior said his son's victory could help cycling shed its image as a sport riddled with drugs cheats, saying his win was "a landmark" that could potentially convince doubters that cycling is entering a new clean era.

Froome has had to endure some tough lines of questioning from the media throughout the Tour on the subject of doping, particularly after his victory on stage 15 on top of Mont Ventoux.

"He is aware and has felt pretty indignant at the aspersions that have been cast in his direction and at the sport in general and I think he feels that there are so many young, clean riders achieving positions in this year's tour that it may be a turning point for cycling, which cycling so badly needs," Mr Froome said.   

Britain's Mark Cavendish failed to make it five in a row on the Champs-Elysees after finishing in third place in a sprint finish.

Marcel Kittel won the stage, with Andre Greipel in second.

Prime Minister David Cameron led the tributes to the cyclist. He tweeted: "A brilliant win by @chrisfroome.

"After two British winners it's only right the Tour de France comes to Yorkshire next year."

Labour leader Miliband described the epic three-week road race victory as "fantastic", adding: "Another brilliant day for British cycling."

Welsh hurdler Dai Greene tweeted his congratulations to Froome, saying: "Team Sky did amazing. Massive congratulations to @chrisfroome , what a worthy winner."

Broadcaster Gary Lineker also took to the social networking site to voice his delight, tweeting: "Congratulations to @chrisfroome on a stunning #TourDeFrance victory. A monumental effort."

Retired cricketer Andrew Flintoff said: "Just seen the news , amazing effort from @chrisfroome , well done! #teamplayer"

Froome's first cycling mentor, David Kinjah, paid tribute to the "focus and dedication" of the Tour de France champion.

Froome met Mr Kinjah, a professional cyclist in Kenya, when his mother took him to his first organised race at the age of 12.

Mr Kinjah quickly became Froome's mentor and they trained together, mountain biking in the rural highlands north of Nairobi.

For the last three weeks Kinjah has been following Froome's progress in arguably the world's most gruelling sporting event after buying a satellite television package and recording every stage of the Tour.

Mr Kinjah said: "Even though we don't see each other so much any more he has lived my dreams. He is wearing the yellow jersey every day and I almost felt like I was wearing it myself."

Reflecting on his month-long ride across France, Froome added before the final stage: "It's difficult for me to put it into words. It's been an amazing journey for me.

"The race has been a fight every single day."

Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford set about grooming Froome into a winning rider the moment he joined the squad in 2010.

His protege finished second in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana and helped Sir Bradley Wiggins to success on the Tour de France a year later.

"I'd like to come back and keep contending for the Tour for as long as I can and as long as I have the motivation," he said.

Froome claimed the yellow jersey on stage eight - the first of his three stage wins en route to Paris.

Colombia's Nairo Quintana finished second overall, four minutes and 20 seconds behind Froome, with Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez third, a further 44 seconds back.

• Related Stories
• Tour De France: Team Sky's Remarkable Riders
• Chris Froome Cheered On By Kenyan Mentor

Chris Froome Left Out of the Israel-Premier Tech Team Selection for the Tour de France

Some say he’s already seen his last tour, but others—Froome included—beg to differ.

According to the Guardian , there was no mention of Froome in the press release announcing the team’s Tour lineup. Israel Premier Tech did announce that their tour team will be led by Canadian climber Michael Woods, the recent winner of the Route d’Occitanie in the French Pyrenees.

In a statement, Froome said, “I respect the team’s decision and will take some time before refocusing on objectives later in the season and returning to the Tour de France in 2024 .” But he also blamed mechanical issues on his recent lack of results. Froome was forced to make a number of bike changes at the CIC-Mont Ventoux earlier this month.

Besides multiple wins at the Tour de France, Froome also won the Vuelta a España in 2011 and 2017, and the Giro d’Italia in 2018. Before Israel Premier Tech he rode for Team Sky and Team Ineos.

But his incredible track record of wins was a bit tarnished in 2018 when his use of salbutamol—a breathing agent—became public knowledge . Froome aggressively denied any wrongdoing and the case against him was eventually dropped by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

Froome hasn’t yet spoken about future races or how he will shift his focus this year. And while it might seem late to be deciding teams for the Tour de France , which starts on July 1 in Bilbao, Spain, it’s actually quite common for start lists to be left to the last minute. Why not add to the already off-the-charts drama of it all?

.css-1t6om3g:before{width:1.75rem;height:1.75rem;margin:0 0.625rem -0.125rem 0;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-background-size:1.25rem;background-size:1.25rem;background-color:#F8D811;color:#000;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-position:center;background-position:center;}.loaded .css-1t6om3g:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/bicycling/static/images/chevron-design-element.c42d609.svg);} Racing

Highlights & Lessons From the 2024 Spring Classics

A Comprehensive Guide to the 2024 Giro d’Italia

Wout van Aert Is Back to Outdoor Training

How to Watch La Vuelta Femenina 2024

Nairo Quintana Will Focus on Stage Wins at Giro

Kopecky Won’t Be Racing the Tour de France Femmes

UAE Team Emirates Secures Isaac Del Toro’s Future

MvdP and Tom Pidcock Eat Humble Pie at LBL

Pogačar Dedicates Liège Victory to Urška’s Mother

2024 Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL Race Results

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024 Results and Recap

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• Backchannel
• Newsletters
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

João Medeiros

The science behind Chris Froome and Team Sky's Tour de France preparations

When Chris Froome is racing, he imagines he has a bag of coins to spend. Every time he wastes energy, he needs to pay. He pays whenever he's pedalling against the wind. He pays when he moves up the peloton during a climb instead of waiting for a flat road where he can get maximum drag off the riders around him. He even pays for trivial manoeuvres such as collecting bidons of water from the support car that follows riders during a race. He pays because all these moments imply an acceleration, an intensification of effort that puts Froome in the red.

In physiological terms, the moment that requires payment is called the threshold: the point beyond which you cannot ride comfortably for a long period of time. At any given stage of a race, Froome will try to spend as little time over that threshold as possible, even if that means losing his position within the group. Froome is attuned to it. As he crosses that threshold, he starts feeling his body screaming at him to slow down. He starts breathing faster as his muscles demand more oxygen.

Then comes the pain. When it comes, he embraces it, knowing that it's highly likely that his rivals are in even more discomfort. He might look around the peloton checking for symptoms in the riders' body language. Alberto Contador, the Spaniard from team Tinkoff and winner of all three Grand Tours - Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España - hides it well, grimacing for just a second. Nairo Quintana, from Colombia, sits very still on the bike, his face expressionless.

Froome, on the other hand, is perhaps the most obvious in his suffering. Elbows out, head down, ungraceful. But pain is sometimes a signal for Froome to make his move, especially if he has made his savings, carefully 
considering the energy that went into every single pedal stroke. He knows that when it comes to the final climb at a key stage of a Grand Tour, the rider with the most coins left is the one most likely to win.

That's what happened during stage ten of the 2015 Tour de France . It was the first mountain of the Tour, a hilly 166km stretch of road between Tarbes and La Pierre-Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees that finished at an elevation of 1,610m after 15.3km of climbing. Froome, who weighed 67.5kg at the time, averaged a power of 414 Watts during that climb. With 6.5km to go, he accelerated for 24 seconds, averaging 556 Watts. It was a devastating attack that left Quintana, his nearest opponent, for dust, and a performance so spectacular that journalists questioned its provenance.

In the subsequent press conference, Tim Kerrison, Froome's coach, told reporters that it was not unexpected considering some of the numbers the rider had achieved in the past. For instance, Froome's average power over 60 minutes, including the run-in to the climb, was 366 Watts, and Kerrison pointed out that Froome had exceeded that level on 15 occasions since 2011, in racing and training. Furthermore, his heart rate readings indicated that he had reached the stage feeling fresh and in good physical condition. In other words, he had saved most of his coins. "It's great when you manage to save as much as possible and you're ready for the last climb," Froome says.

Juliane Bergmann

Kathy Gilsinan

Julian Chokkattu

"You know you're going to lay it all out there and just go for it." Of course, Froome's extraordinary performance wasn't just a direct result of his natural ability, but a by-product of his training. Kerrison was able to cite exactly how many times Froome had exceeded the power output number that he registered at Pierre-Saint-Martin; after all, he's been tracking data from every single pedal stroke his riders take, both in racing and training, for more than four years. That data is the foundation for the comprehensive and detailed training programme that all Team Sky riders undertake. "I work on the basis that everything we do is probably wrong," Kerrison says. "There are sure to be better ways of doing things. Pretty much every day we do things differently. The riders understand why we do things the way we do. They can always see how it relates to the overall picture."

Chris Froome, 31, has blue eyes and close-cropped hair. His body shape is ectomorphic, with long, lean limbs. His demeanour is quiet but polite and inclusive. When we sit down to talk in the living room at Team Sky's house in Nice, he asks for permission before reclining on the sofa. He either looks straight at the ceiling or across his shoulder directly at WIRED when making a particularly salient point, such as the moment he began to have confidence in himself as a rider and started being smarter about his racing style. He used to be careless with his energy. He was impulsive. Or sometimes team tactics dictated he had to attack at the beginning of the stage and, by the time the race reached the key moment of a climb, he would have nothing left to give.

It's not that Froome lacked the natural capacity; he always knew he had, as he puts it, a "big engine". He just didn't know how to use it. When he was tested in a physiology laboratory in July 2007, in Lausanne, Switzerland, he was told that the maximum rate at which he could consume oxygen - a physiological parameter that goes by the name of VO2max - was 80.2ml of oxygen per minute per kilo of body weight, and his threshold power sat at a 420W. These were the numbers of a potential Tour de France champion.

When Froome joined Team Sky in 2010 from Barloworld, he would produce incredible numbers in training, frequently much higher than his teammates, even though unbeknown to him at the time his body was ridden with parasitic flatworms (a disease called bilharzia, for which he was eventually treated). And yet, he was inconsistent when competing. By the 2011 season, Team Sky's performance director Dave Brailsford was considering dropping him from the squad. His standing in the team was such that the pre-race plan for the 2011 Vuelta a España said: "[Teammates] Xabier [Zandio], Morris [Possoni] and Froome will do their best to survive as long as possible and will fetch bottles, etc." He finished that Vuelta in second place, ahead of Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky's leading rider at the time. That, he says, was the big turning point in his cycling career. A year later, when Wiggins won the Tour de France, Froome finished second.

"I began to understand that I belonged with the best climbers," Froome says. "I wasn't struggling the way I thought I would be." He gained confidence and learned how to use his internal engine. When he repeated the physiological test in August 2015, his values hadn't shifted much - VO2max was now 84.6 and his threshold power 419W - the difference was due to his weight 
loss of 5.7kg. These were the numbers of a two-time Tour de France winner.

In 2009, when Dave Brailsford announced the creation of Team Sky, Britain's only professional race cycling team, the goal was to win the Tour de France within five years - a bold target considering that Britain never had much tradition in road cycling.

Winning the Tour de France had been a dream Brailsford had harboured since he was a teenager. He was brought up in a mining village in North Wales, and in 1983, aged 19, he decided to try competing in the Tour de France. He stuck his bike inside a cardboard box and bought a one-way ticket to France. "I grant you, I was a bit naive and didn't really appreciate the magnitude of the challenge," Brailsford says. "I went to the end of a bike race, when everybody arrived with their cars. I looked around for the nicest kits, went up to them with my bike in its box and said,
"Hi, can I race for your team?" And they were all like, "What?"

Brailsford ended up spending four years in Saint-Étienne, failing to race at the Tour de France, failing even to become a professional. He eventually returned to the UK and completed a degree in sports psychology followed by an MBA at the University of Sheffield Management School.

In 1997, he was hired by British Cycling as an operations director to look over its business side. The programme was run by Peter Keen, a respected sport scientist known for his innovative approach to coaching. As performance director, Keen was taking steps to modernise an underfunded, understaffed team with no infrastructure for proper training. In 1998, after the announcement of Lottery funding for sports in the UK, Keen put together an ambitious and detailed plan entitled the World Class Performance Programme. He stated his vision clearly: to make the UK the world's top cycling nation by 2012. Few people believed it was possible.

At the core of his plan was the application of a scientific and rational method to the art of cycling performance. It was a clear break from a past dominated by a mindset rooted in tradition, low self-belief and an unwillingness to explore new technology. British Cycling hired performance analysts, physiologists and biomechanists. "We had a lack of history in terms of cycling. There were no 
professional cycling coaches, so we hired smart sport-science graduates, "Brailsford says. "You might say that with hindsight that was a great decision. We were lucky to have this group who came up with all kinds of weird and wonderful ideas. Nobody ever said that something 
was not going to work."

Perhaps the most significant step early on was the acquisition of a set of power meters for the bikes, which allowed the measurement of the energy per second the cyclists could produce: their power output, in other words. Whereas before, cyclists had to rely on monitoring heart rate, speed and perceived exertion - all parameters that were easily influenced by environmental factors and had nothing to do with performance - power output was an objective measure and was the perfect tool for performance-based training. It allowed track cycling to become a data-driven sport.

The power meters, along with other technologies like video analysis and aerodynamic testing, allowed British Cycling performance analysts to create a systematic analysis of the numbers - lap times, cadences, power outputs, drag factors - that their riders could produce. They would also do an in-depth analysis of the numbers that were needed to win races, a process they called analysis of the demands of the event. "We would go to the nth degree in terms of truly understanding what winning looked like," Brailsford says. "This allowed us to create a document called 'What It'll Take to Win'. We spent more time than any other team in the world doing that particular work."

By the time Keen left in 2003, Brailsford had inherited a British Cycling team that had already accrued significant success in the Olympics. Alongside its emphasis on sport science, Brailsford introduced an organisational principle called "Performance by the aggregation of marginal gains". As a philosophy, it was akin to a widely known business concept known as Kaizen, popularised by Toyota, which requires the implementation of a culture of continuous improvement. In fact, the name "marginal" came to Brailsford as he was reviewing some studies he had done during his MBA on marginal costing. In cycling terms, it meant breaking down everything that goes into riding a bike and looking for the one per cent shifts that would make a difference. It seemed obvious to Brailsford that going after big ideas was difficult to do on a daily basis, but small gains, which were often overlooked, could be regularly aggregated to create meaningful change.

"Marginal gains came out of the magnitude of change required, in terms of where we were and where we wanted to get to," Brailsford says. "And then, equally, I know this sounds a bit contradictory, the margins of victory. You could win a race by one-tenth of a second. And you're thinking, 'OK, if we could win a race by one-tenth of a second, all these little things over here could equate to one-tenth of a second. So, why won't we do them?'"

After the Beijing Games in 2008, with Brailsford still at the helm, British Cycling had become one of the most extraordinary success stories in the history of sport. Atlanta 1996: two medals, 12th place; Sydney 2000, four medals; Athens 2004, four medals and third place; Beijing 2008: 14 medals and first place. This was the sort of epic British success story that Brailsford wanted to replicate 
in road cycling with Team Sky.

"When we created Team Sky, we sat down with a blank sheet of paper and said: "Right, we're going to create a professional cycling team. How should we do it?'" Brailsford recalls. "We took what we'd learned and tried and tested over the years in British Cycling 
and put it all on the page."

During its first year of operation, Team Sky became well known for its relentless application of marginal gains, in stark contrast with the traditional professional teams at the time. Team Sky's jerseys were designed with a thin blue line that ran down the spine to symbolise the narrow margin between victory and defeat, made from a special black fabric that reflected heat. It hired Honda's Formula 1 logistics manager Gwilym Mason-Evans to gut the inside of the team bus and completely redesign it. It employed a team of carers who would go to the hotels where the riders would be staying to remove mattresses, vacuum the beds underneath and replace them with mattresses and pillows made of elastic foam that had been individually customised so that the riders could maintain the same posture every night. It taught its riders how to wash their hands properly, made them carry hand gels at all times and forbade handshakes to prevent the spreading of illnesses during competition. It had bike-fitting sessions using 3D motion-capture technology in Valencia, Spain. It ordered the manufacture of a Perspex cocoon in which the team could warm up away from crowds and the media.

The sporting results, however, were disappointing. Bradley Wiggins had finished fourth at the previous Tour de France riding for Garmin-Slipstream. Now Team Sky's main contender, he finished the next in 24th place. "We'd come into the sport thinking that we knew a lot, we'd won all these Olympic medals and it was going to be easy," admits Fran Millar, Team Sky's director of business operations and head of winning behaviours. "Bradley was having ice baths and drinking cherry juice and all sorts of stuff, but he just wasn't fit enough. Dave said that we had concentrated too much on the peas, and not on the steak."

Prior to the start of the 2010 season, Brailsford hired Australian performance analyst Tim Kerrison. He was a former rower with extensive experience of coaching and as a sport scientist for swimming. He had been exclusively involved in swimming since 1998, working with a group of female sprinters who went on to have a very successful 2004 Olympics in Athens. "There was this ingrained culture of swimming which was very conducive to developing good aerobic distance-based, endurance-based athletes, but not sprinters," Kerrison says. "We recognised if we do what we've always done, we'll get what we've always got. That needed to change. Let's forget everything we know about swimming and the way everyone trains and think from first principles. What do we know not just about swimming, but other sports and physiology and training science?"

Most training programmes at the time were based around the idea of periodisation. "It's essentially the way the emphasis of training shifts over time," Kerrison says. "This can include a greater emphasis on workload or recovery, or a shift in the emphasis of the type of training within a training block." Traditionally, periodisation involved an initial training period which was predominantly focused 
on endurance and aerobic capacity, with more intense anaerobic workouts that included speed and power training added later in the year as a competition approached.

"We turned the conventional periodisation idea around," Kerrison says. "It made more sense. One of the foundations of sports training is specificity, which means that everything you do in training has to be related, to some degree, to what you need to do in competition. So we began working on the team's anaerobic systems from the very beginning, developing their strength, speed and power. Only later did we lay on more aerobic training."

Kerrison had been working as a sports scientist for the British swimming team since 2005 when Brailsford contacted him. He had already received a job offer from England Cricket that he was about to sign, and although Kerrison had never worked with cyclists, Brailsford convinced him to join Team Sky. "I grew up thinking that the Tour was one of the ultimate sporting challenges," Kerrison says. "I still think it is. I can't think of many things more challenging and special to me than winning the Tour de France. So it's a meaningful goal. How realistic it was, I wasn't sure."

When Kerrison joined Team Sky in late 2009, Brailsford told him that they were not expecting anything from him until November 2010. His mission was just to follow the team around as they competed for their first Tour de France. They hired a camper van, nicknamed Black Betty, which Kerrison shared with fellow performance analyst Matt Parker, then Team Sky's head of marginal gains. Kerrison spent this time taking notes and talking little. "He travelled round with the team working with our power data and not really visibly much else. Everyone was just, 'Who is this weird Australian who lives in a camper van?" Fran Millar recalls.

At the end of 2010, after the first season of racing, Brailsford told Kerrison, who had been in cycling for about a year, that he was going to coach Bradley Wiggins and that he had to formulate a plan to win the Tour de France. "I did what I had done with the sprint swimmers in Australia: go back to the very first principles," Kerrison says. "It was a huge benefit to not have my judgment clouded by all the other stuff I didn't know and just quickly work out exactly what I needed to know. We needed to forget about the culture, and forget about all the bullshit and the peripherals."

One of the first things Kerrison did was to try and find out exactly what it would take to win the Tour. After all, much of the success of British Cycling had been built around a methodical analysis of an event's demands and knowing what it took to win. "Riders used power and trained for power to a certain extent," Brailsford says. "They would download their training information into the system and get nothing back, so they stopped doing it. Kerrison changed all that. Our compliance rates, in terms of riders, when they're at home downloading the data, went through the roof, because they all started seeing how it affected their training plans."

Kerrison adopted a database system called Training Peaks in which the athletes could download the data so that he could study it. Using this data, Kerrison did a power curve analysis for each athlete that showed, for a given duration - from one second to three hours - how much power a rider could sustain. ("It's an ongoing thing now," Kerrison says. "Every day we have a new current power curve for the riders. Over time we have built up a knowledge of what this means and how to interpret it.") Then, based on the data available for previous Tour de France winners and on extrapolations, he estimated the power curve corresponding to what it would take to win the Tour de France. "Those were the demands of the event," Brailsford says. "We compared the capacity athletes had against what was needed to win and trained the athletes against that."

Kerrison also understood that Team Sky would need good climbers that could perform at altitude and at high temperatures. "A lot of decisive moments in the Grand Tours are performed at well over 1,000 
metres, sometimes as high as 2,500 metres," Kerrison says. "So if you're not able to perform at that level, then you're screwed, basically."

The body adapts to training at altitude, mostly through respiratory adaptations, recalibrating to different levels of oxygen. To address this, Kerrison scouted Europe for high-altitude camp locations, eventually deciding on Tenerife. "Britain doesn't have high mountains and heat so our cyclists weren't used to it," Kerrison says. "I did start to question if we were going to be able to compete with guys who spent their whole lives growing up riding in the mountains at altitude in the heat."

Still, Kerrison wondered how quickly the athletes would be able to adapt, so at the start of their first Tenerife camp, they tested their athletes' efforts at altitude and at sea level. On day one, the average difference in the athletes' threshold between sea level and 2,100 metres was about 70W. By day three, it was 35W. After two weeks there was no difference. The riders had acclimatised.

When Kerrison presented his plan to win the Tour de France, he essentially said that they had to forget about the details until they got the basics right. For Wiggins, those basics were conditioning, weight management, time trialling and performing at altitude and in the heat. "We were so caught up with the bells and whistles and all the clever stuff," Brailsford says. "We delivered all of that in year one and it didn't work. We didn't get our basics right. That was a big learning and Kerrison was a bit part of that. We decided on a new mantra that winter: 'Doing the simple things better than anybody else.'" That year, Bradley Wiggins crashed out on an early stage of the Tour, breaking his collarbone. In 2012, however, he became the first British rider to win it.

One afternoon in April 2016, Kerrison is at the wheel of one of Team Sky's Ford Mondeos following Froome as he pedals a few metres ahead in the hills around Nice, in the south of France. He had already completed most of this training plan for the day: two flat efforts on the time trial bike - 15 minutes and 12 minutes - with about five minutes of recovery in between. Then he took part in a 20-minute climbing effort on the time trial bike before switching to a road bike and was now on his final effort: 12 minutes of "spiked efforts" building up to four minutes of threshold. "Froome's anaerobic threshold is on around 450 Watts, but he rarely does anything at a constant pace," Kerrison explains. 
"He might do one minute about 30 Watts over threshold and then three minutes with ten Watts under threshold. Overall, the effort over that period of time would be at threshold."

This goes back to Kerrison's idea of specificity. While sometimes the pace is constant at a race, other times it is very dynamic, with pace changing all the time. That's what Froome is training for. Of course, on a more fundamental level, what Kerrison is manipulating in his mind is a more complicated set of equations describing the various cause-effect relationships between a training load and a physiological adaptation.

Consider the interplay between the distinct aerobic and anaerobic motors of an athlete. In simple terms, below the physiological landmark of the lactate threshold, the body is able to clear lactate as fast as it is produced. Above that threshold, it accumulates.

"People think developing the anaerobic system is a bad thing because it produces lactate and lactate is bad," Kerrison says. "It's only bad if you can't remove it. Otherwise, it gives you power. When I was in Australia we had some distance swimmers who, no matter how hard we pushed them, just didn't produce any lactate. I'm not sure whether that was because they weren't producing any or because they were efficient at removing it. We found out when we first measured Chris that it was the same. He would do a maximum effort and when we measured lactate there was nothing. Based on what I knew from swimming, I knew this was really promising. He was producing incredible power and whatever lactate he was producing he was able to remove. That indicated that we needed to increase his anaerobic capacity - his ability to produce lactate - because he had an ability to remove it."

Kerrison then adds another layer to the consideration of Froome's physiology: the nutritional fuel he uses for this aerobic effort. This fuel is a mixture of carbohydrates and fats, which are metabolised in different proportions depending on the intensity of the effort. The more intense the effort, the more carbs are required. But to Kerrison, even the way the body fuels can be trained and adapted, shifting it towards a type of metabolism that specifically benefits a rider racing the Tour de France.

"We restrict carbs in training and this shifts the metabolism," Kerrison says. "It drives an adaptation that makes the body become more efficient at using fat as fuel. So up to a certain intensity, say 200 Watts, Froome will predominantly be using fat as fuel. A significant portion of a typical five-hour stage is ridden at a relatively low intensity, meaning he'll be burning mostly fat, saving the carb stores for the more intense stages of the stage where it's needed the most - for example, the final mountain climb."

According to Kerrison, the interaction between those three types of metabolisms - carbohydrate-fuelled aerobix, fat-fuelled aerobic and anaerobic - is the foundation of Froome's training plan. When we return to Team Sky's house, Kerrison shows WIRED a five-page checklist that he keeps for each of his riders. It includes items such as power curve analysis, demands of the events, fat-carb metabolism, heat and altitude. There are 74 factors, qualitative and quantitative, that encapsulate Kerrison's understanding of what it takes to win.

It's the blueprint of what it takes to become a Tour de France winner, a title that Froome is defending this year after victory in 2015. He won it pretty much the same way as he had in 2013: by riding the first mountain stage very aggressively and earning a substantial advantage early in the race. That strategy caught everyone off guard. It wasn't part of Team Sky's plans; it was a decision that Froome made a couple of weeks before the start of the Tour and even Kerrison wasn't sure it was the best way to race.

Indeed, by the penultimate stage, Froome was struggling physically, exacerbated by a chest infection. Quintana, second in the general classification and 3'10" behind the leader, attacked relentlessly. "It was one of the days I had to fight the hardest to keep the yellow jersey," Froome recalls. "The pain was severe, but I knew that once I got to the finish line it would be done."

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

Adrienne So

David Nield

Matt Jancer

Eric Ravenscraft

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Chris Froome misses out on Tour de France place but vows to return in 2024

• Froome left out of eight-man Israel-Premier Tech team
• ‘I respect the team’s decision’ says four-times champion

Chris Froome, the four-time Tour de France winner, has been surprisingly omitted from Israel Premier Tech’s eight-rider squad for this year’s race.

Froome, who has struggled to reach his former level after suffering severe injuries in a crash in June 2019, had been widely expected to start the race when it gets under way in Bilbao at the beginning of July and had recently trained with the team’s Tour de France shortlist of riders.

But a lack of results, allied to what Froome referred to as “equipment issues” when he responded to his omission, meant that the 38-year-old did not make the cut. And despite his insistence that he could again contend for the Tour, it now seems unlikely that he will ever start the French race again.

There was no mention of Froome in the press release announcing the team’s Tour lineup. Instead, Israel Premier Tech announced it will be led by the in-form Canadian climber, Michael Woods, the recent winner of the Route d’Occitanie in the French Pyrenees.

Froome, who subsequently gave a statement to Global Cycling Network, said that physically he was ready to start the Tour, but that during the buildup, he had felt unable to show what he called his “full ability at the races assigned to me, due to equipment issues.”

He added: “I respect the team’s decision and will take some time before refocusing on objectives later in the season and returning to the Tour de France in 2024.”

Froome’s best performance in the Tour, since his disastrous reconnaissance crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné, came in last year’s stage to Alpe d’Huez, when he finished third behind the stage winner, Tom Pidcock.

However, that has been the sole Grand Tour highlight of his career since leaving Team Ineos. Despite his insistence that he would eventually reach his former level, he has struggled in the biggest climbs and has been a shadow of his once-dominant former self.

Froome has an illustrious Grand Tour resume. He was winner of the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, as well as the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and the Vuelta a España in 2011 and 2017, while with Team Sky and subsequently Team Ineos.

after newsletter promotion

However, those successes were also dogged by scepticism, which came to a head in the spring of 2018 when an adverse finding for salbutamol use became public knowledge, although he vehemently denied any wrongdoing and the case against him was eventually dropped by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

Although he is already talking about competing in the 2024 Tour, it is unclear if Froome will continue with his current team. On signing Froome as his most high-profile rider in late 2020, Israel Premier Tech’s team owner, Sylvan Adams, said that Froome would remain with the team “until the end of his career.”

“Chris will stay with us until his retirement,” Adams told cyclingnews.com . “The duration [of the contract]was established by Chris’s desire to race for so many more years.”

Froome’s thoughts may now turn towards other races later this season, but retirement, or at least a transition to gravel racing, a path pursued by other past Tour winners, such as Italian Vincenzo Nibali, may also be looming.

• Tour de France 2023
• Chris Froome
• Tour de France
• Simon Yates

Most viewed

• Vuelta Femenina

'I feel five years younger' – Chris Froome ready to take on 2024 with fresh motivation

Seven-time Grand Tour winner on returning to racing, Tour de France ambitions, and working with Factor

Matilda Price

Racing news editor.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

© Sprint Cycling Agency

Chris Froome is hoping he can get back to the Tour de France

For most professional riders, an autumn trip to race in Hainan and visit your team's bike manufacturer's HQ in Taiwan might not be the most exciting prospect – principally an exercise in satisfying your team and sponsors at the end of a long season.

Yet for Chris Froome , the Tour of Hainan was a refreshing return to racing after two months away. The trip to Factor’s base in Taiwan, meanwhile, was not just a visit to a sponsor, but a chance to see the fruits of his own labour; Froome is an involved investor in Factor bikes, as well as riding their bikes in races.

Froome was passed over for this year's Tour de France , a race he has won four times. Bitterly disappointed , he instead took on the Czech Tour, where he failed to finish on the final stage. Since then, he hasn’t raced all summer.

In October, determined to go out of this season with a bang not a whimper, the 38-year-old headed to Asia to try his hand at the Tour of Hainan and the Japan Cup. These are lower-level races, especially for a Tour winner like Froome, but he hoped they’d give him a taste of positivity ahead of his 2024 campaign.

“The first couple of days I really struggled in the race,” Froome said of his time in Hainan, where an illness derailed his start. “But certainly through day three, four, five in the race, I just felt as if I was getting better and better and better.”

After a difficult season, it’s perhaps no surprise that Froome’s results on paper were nothing stand-out, but the Brit was emphatic about how much the experience had buoyed him mentally ahead of next season.

“Even though I came in a little bit sick into the race, I came out feeling super,” he explained. “I mean really just feeling five years younger again - wanting to go in the break, feeling energetic, feeling completely rejuvenated.

"This has given me a bit of newfound motivation I guess, in terms of thinking about next season and how I approach next year. I’ve got no expectations on myself, but at the same time, I would really like to get back to the pointy end of racing again, so that’s really given me that bit of hope now."

The power of bike set-up

What is behind Froome finally feeling good on a bike again? From the way he speaks, you might start to imagine a dramatic change in training, a new coach, a revitalised approach to racing. But no, the thing that made the difference for Chris Froome was as simple as a bike fit.

“In the earlier part of the season, I’ve been battling with a lot of lower back pain, before the Tour de France,” he said, referring to the problem that more than likely contributed to his non-selection for the biggest race on the calendar.

After the severe injuries Froome suffered in a career-changing crash in 2019, the Brit has been no stranger to pain and discomfort in the last few years as he tried to return to his old form, but it turns out that the most recent problem is not in fact a hangover from that crash.

“It led me to basically go and really double down on checking my bike set-up and my position and everything,” he said. “We did find some pretty big discrepancies between my current position at that time, and looking back at how I was sitting when I was racing for Sky and Ineos.”

Chris Froome in a position more akin to his old Team Sky posture

A tall and rangy rider with long arms and an upright form, Froome’s position on the bike isn’t particularly standard, which can make it harder to get right.

“That led me to go and make an appointment with a bike set-up specialist, to go and really check and see all the angles. Basically to get closer to and try and copy the position that I was sitting at previously when I was winning races, and I found that there was actually a really big difference in those two set-ups.

“We’ve made some big, big changes in terms of my position, but I am feeling much better now. And interestingly the back pain has just disappeared, so I think that was very much down to how I was sitting on the bike.”

Can a tweaked bike set-up change a rider’s trajectory? That remains to be seen, but it’s clear that for Froome, fixing that problem and riding pain-free for the first time in a long time has been a big boost.

Equipment matters: working closely with Factor

The specific work on Froome’s bike set-up is emblematic of a rider for whom equipment, bikes and technology are especially important. Not content to just climb onto the team bike provided and be done with it, Froome’s tenure at Israel-Premier Tech has seen him work closely with Factor, becoming a shareholder in the company and helping develop their race bikes.

Chris Froome visited the Factor factory in Taiwan

“For any professional bike rider, it's super important to be able to have that connection and relationship with the guys who are producing the bikes for you,” he said. “You always want to be involved, making it faster, making tweaks. Even just a few months into the relationship I knew I wanted to get more involved with these guys.”

The idea of a rider having involvement in the equipment they ride – particularly when you’re a seven-time Grand Tour winner – seems like it may be a given, but in fact, for Froome it was a marked change from his time working with Pinarello on Team Sky and Ineos.

Chris Froome is hands-on and involved with Factor

As well as feeling like he was listened to with his feedback, coming on board as a shareholder has given Froome even more input into his equipment, from small tweaks to redesigning the race bike’s handlebar set-up at his request.

“Having this channel, I feel I've got an amazing opportunity,” he said of his partnership with the brand. “Every bike rider wishes they could have a direct line to the factory to make changes happen.

"Within months of saying about the handlebars, I had a finished product in my hands, ready to test, not having to give feedback to one person and then chase it up and see if they've followed it up to someone else. I'm passionate about my equipment, I always have been, so the two just go together.”

It’s clear this is a partnership that works, both for Froome and for Factor, who get to have one of the biggest names in cycling in recent years riding its equipment and acting as an ambassador for the brand. Even when relations with Israel-Premier Tech have been less rosy, the relationships between Froome and his bike sponsor has stood out.

The final piece: motivation

Despite the positives of the end of 2023 going well, his back pain issue resolved, and Froome and Factor working closer together than ever, it’s not hard to forget that for Chris Froome, the last few years have not been successful. In the face of repeated setbacks, staying motivated has been a question of managing expectations.

“Since my big crash in 2019, anything from here in terms of achievements, objectives, I don’t want to set a limit on what I’m able to achieve," he said.

"I just want to get the best out of myself. I want to be able to look back once I’ve retired and say that I’ve given it everything, no regrets. Whether that means winning a bike race again and putting my arms in the air, or just helping my teammates, I’m good with that."

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Froome is still hoping to rediscover some form of old

Whilst the outside world may continue to judge the 38-year-old’s success purely on his results at the highest level – something he admits may not come back – his own outlook takes a wider perspective.

“I think a lot of people really understand - you’ve won all the biggest Grand Tours in cycling, how can you be happy just to be a team player? And I genuinely just love racing. I love racing, I love being in the team environment, whether that’s winning or not winning.

"Of course I enjoy when I’m able to win – every bike rider dreams of winning the biggest races, but even though I’m in a position where I’m not winning it doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying myself and not happy and grateful to be here."

The one big hope he does have, though, is to make a return to the Tour de France, perhaps not to win it, but to be back at the race which has given him so much success during his career. It’s clear that even now, nine months away from the race, that it’s something that’s on his mind, and any thoughts about 2024 are also about how he builds towards that one race.

Whilst he admits team goals will ultimately decide what his place is in the team, the focus is there, with plans ready for a more strategic racing programme in the first half of the year.

"I think I can only really control where I can get to as a bike rider and the preparation that I can do before the Tour de France, to put myself in the best position to be chosen for the Tour next year,” he explained. “So I’m going to do everything I can.”

Israel-Premier Tech

• Nationality Israel
• Founded 2015
• Team Principal Kjell Carlström
• UCI Code IPT
• Bike Sponsor Factor

Chris Froome

• Team Israel-Premier Tech
• Nationality United Kingdom
• UCI Wins 48
• Height 1.86m

Factor bikes is a UK based high-performance frame brand which makes bikes built predominantly for racing.

Latest Videos

1 The Quickest And Easiest Way To Wax A Chain

2 Is Spinning Gears Really Faster?

3 I Built My Dream Bike!

4 Carbon Or Aluminium Handlebars: What Is BEST?

5 Can Simon Survive America's Toughest Gravel Race Series?

Matilda takes care of pro racing-related content for the website.

Related Content

Bicycle ASMR: Chris Froome parodies Bentley viral video

Four-time Tour de France winner shows off the sounds of his bike with his cycling-themed take on the viral video

World of Cycling: The legacy of Chris Froome

A four-time Tour de France champion, we reflect on Froome’s career and where he goes from here

Chris Froome: I’ll return to the Tour de France in 2024

British rider vows to return following his non-selection in Israel Premier-Tech's Tour team

Mark Cavendish back riding alongside Chris Froome as Astana director praises ‘champion’ sprinter ahead of return

Fofonov praises veteran with contract plans still unclear ahead of 2024 and possible Tour de France return

Subscribe to the GCN Newsletter

Get the latest, most entertaining and best informed news, reviews, challenges, insights, analysis, competitions and offers - straight to your inbox

• Tour de France
• Stages - Results
• Previous winners
• Football Home
• Fixtures - Results
• Premier League
• Champions League
• Europa League
• All Competitions
• All leagues
• Snooker Home
• World Championship
• UK Championship
• Major events
• Olympics Home
• Tennis Home
• Calendar - Results
• Australian Open
• Roland-Garros
• Mountain Bike Home
• UCI Track CL Home
• Men's standings
• Women's standings
• Cycling Home
• Race calendar
• Vuelta a España
• Giro d'Italia
• Dare to Dream
• Alpine Skiing Home
• Athletics Home
• Diamond League
• World Championships
• World Athletics Indoor Championships
• Biathlon Home
• Cross-Country Skiing Home
• Cycling - Track
• Equestrian Home
• Figure Skating Home
• Formula E Home
• Calendar - results
• DP World Tour
• MotoGP Home
• Motorsports Home
• Speedway GP
• Clips and Highlights
• Rugby World Cup predictor
• Premiership
• Champions Cup
• Challenge Cup
• All Leagues
• Ski Jumping Home
• Speedway GP Home
• Superbikes Home
• The Ocean Race Home
• Triathlon Home
• Hours of Le Mans
• Winter Sports Home

‘It’s awesome’ – Chris Froome named in Tour de France squad by Israel Premier-Tech as 10th appearance looms

Updated 22/06/2022 at 15:03 GMT

Chris Froome has made the cut for the 2022 Tour de France as his remarkable story with cycling’s biggest race continues. The Brit is hoping to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on five Tour de France titles – a record after Lance Armstrong was expunged from the record books – but those hopes are fading fast as he struggles to rediscover his pre-injury form.

‘Definitely not’ – Fifth title is beyond Froome, says McEwen

Froome: Another Tour stage win would be an amazing way to end my career

10/04/2024 at 10:20

• Tour de France 2022 - 7 key stages in the battle for yellow
• Tour de France 2022 route: Every stage assessed for bruising 109th edition

Froome ‘one step closer to old self’ after impressing at Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes

Vingegaard storms to Stage 5 victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, Froome withdraws

08/03/2024 at 15:23

'I'd really like to get back there' - Froome hopes to get to Tour in 'best shape possible'

05/03/2024 at 17:07

McEwen blasts 'stupid' decision as Philipsen escapes punishment for 'block'

21/07/2023 at 13:37

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Tour of Romandie win is career-best title for Carlos Rodriguez through rain-slicked final stage

The winner of the Tour de Romandie, Carlos Rodriguez, right, from Spain of team Ineos Grenadier, celebrates on the podium after the fifth and final stage, a 150,8 km race between Vernier and Vernier at the 77th Tour de Romandie UCI World Tour Cycling race, in Vernier near Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

The winner of the Tour de Romandie, Carlos Rodriguez, right, from Spain of team Ineos Grenadier, crosses the finish line of the fifth and final stage, a 150,8 km race between Vernier and Vernier at the 77th Tour de Romandie UCI World Tour Cycling race, in Vernier near Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

The winner of the stage, Dorian Godon from France of team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, crosses the finish line to win the fifth and final stage, a 150,8 km race between Vernier and Vernier at the 77th Tour de Romandie UCI World Tour Cycling race, in Vernier near Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

• Copy Link copied

VERNIER, Switzerland (AP) — Carlos Rodriguez protected his yellow jersey through a rain-soaked final stage Sunday to win the six-day Tour of Romandie for the biggest race victory of his career.

Four previous winners in the French-speaking region of Switzerland went on to win that season’s Tour de France, including Chris Froome in 2013. Rodriguez placed fifth in cycling’s marquee event last year and won a stage.

Rodriguez started Sunday’s flat stage that looped round the suburbs of Geneva — won in a sprint finish by Dorian Godon — with a seven-second lead he took by placing third in a mountain stage Saturday.

The 23-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider kept that winning margin over runner-up Aleksandr Vlasov, the 2022 Romandie winner. Third-placed Florian Lipowitz was third, trailing Rodriquez by nine seconds.

Godon sealed his second stage win this week, edging Simone Consonni with Dion Smith third.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Chris Froome’s wife calls Muslims ‘a drain on society’ in hateful Gaza rant

T he wife of Chris Froome , a four-time Tour de France winner and former Team GB cyclist, has labelled Muslims “a drain on society” in a shocking social media outburst.

The cyclist’s wife and agent, Michelle Froome, deleted her X/Twitter account after using the platform to launch the hateful tirade against the group in light of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza .

Froome said she was “sick of sitting idly by quietly supporting Israel while the Hamas propaganda takes over social media.”

The mother-of-two, who married her husband in 2014, was seemingly inspired to speak out after the situation impacted her own life when pro-Palestinian activists called for “more protests than ever” against her husband’s team, Israel-Premier Tech.

These protests were called to take place at two of cycling’s biggest events, the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.

“Enough is enough,” she wrote.

“The silent majority needs to stand up and be heard. We don’t want your religion, we don’t want your beliefs. It is not compatible with modern civilisation.

“‘Women’s rights matter! Gay rights matter! Trans rights matter! Hamas doesn’t support any of those. Take the blindfolds off and see the reality of the hatred they are spreading. There are no innocent Gazans.”

Froome then claimed that Muslim people were attempting to “take over” the countries they have settled in and encouraged people to “stop pandering to the political correctness.”

She wrote: “Muslims are no longer the minority they claim to be. They are here to take over. The UK, France, they are happy to claim the benefits but will not integrate into those communities. They will continue to TAKE what suits them. They are a drain on modern society.

“It’s time people stop pandering to the political correctness. It’s all a facade. They burned babies alive. They deserve no remorse what so ever. This is just the beginning. WAKE UP.”

But depsite the personal connection she has to the conflict, Mrs Froome insisted that she was not speaking out because of cycling but her children.

“If anyone is surprised that I have strong opinions they clearly haven’t been around cycling long enough. I have been quiet but I will not be quiet anymore,” she declared.

“This is not about cycling it is about the world my children are being raised in. More parents need to be concerned about this.”

Froome’s post was met with outrage on the platform.

One Twitter (X) user wrote: “This is just pure racism from Michelle Froome.”

“What a nasty piece of work Michelle Froome is,” added a second. “And completely ridiculous anyway from a woman and her husband who moved to Monaco thirteen years ago.”

A third wrote: “The racism and Islamophobia from #MichelleFroome is deeply offensive. Making disgusting generalisations about all Muslims. I sincerely hope this is condemned and removed.”

Cycling Weekly reports that Chris’s team, despite its name, has no direct connection to Israel, but it is linked through its co-owners, Sylvan Adams and Ron Baron, who are both Israeli.

Ron founded the team with the aim of seeing the first Israeli rider take part in the Tour De France.

The Independent has reached out to Michelle and Chris Froome for comment.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here .

Tour de France remains dream scenario for Chris Froome

“I’m at that point where I don't have any residual pain from the crash” says Israel-Premier Tech rider

Chris Froome has admitted he has lots of steps to take and lots of work to do before he returns to his best possible form but describes riding this year’s Tour de France as a “dream scenario”.

Froome only started his 2022 season at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in late March after a knee tendon injury during the winter kept him off the bike for most of December. The Israel-Premier Tech rider is currently taking part in the Tour of the Alps and then will go on to next week’s Tour de Romandie, a key block of racing when it comes to his plans for  the Tour de France in 2022, his wider ambitions for the summer and beyond.  

“Obviously that would be the dream scenario for me:  to get back into the Tour and be competitive again. But there are lots of steps that need to come before that,” Froome told Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly and Wielerflits during the Tour of the Alps.

“I think it all depends on how everything goes on this next month and a half. I think that would be a final test to see if I'm ready to go back into a race like the Tour de France.” 

Chris Froome says data has made pro cycling more competitive and more dangerous Froome's training for 2022 halted by knee injury Chris Froome questions whether time trial bikes and gravel belong in road cycling

Chris Froome: Suffering has given me more perspective about my career and life

Froome rode the 2021 Tour de France but crashed hard during stage 1 and was left with bruising in his left hip and glute muscle. His Israel-Premier Tech team also revealed his bilharzia disease had flared up again during the race but he fought on to reach Paris.  

To date, Froome has always succeeded in overcoming injuries and setbacks, his gentle voice and boyish looks hiding his determined character. He went well beyond medical expectations to race again after his terrible 2019 crash. Now he hopes to go back to the Tour totally pain free and with the form worthy of a four-time winner. 

Froome’s results at this week’s Tour of the Alps have encouraged him. He has not been in the thick of the action or in the select groups that have fought for the stage victories but he appears to be more consistent. 

Get The Leadout Newsletter

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

“I’m at that point where I don't really have any residual pain or any residual issues from the crash,” Froome explains. 

“The power balance, left/right, that's all good now. Now it's purely about doing the work, getting the hard yards in, getting the power up, getting the weight down, the same story as always in terms of getting back to form. That's a big relief. This first period from Coppi e Bartali until now I've seen a really good progression in terms of the response from my body. I'm pretty happy now.” 

“I feel as if my body is responding differently to how it was last year. I've overcome a lot of hurdles. I've got nothing really holding me back now. I can get fully engrossed in the training side of things now. That's a side that I'm familiar with, I've been doing that for years. That's the side that I'm actually looking forward to now these next few months, seeing where I can get to.” 

Fresher for the summer and the privilege of being at 100%

Froome will have to fight for his place in the eight-rider Israel-Premier Tech Tour de France team even if he has won the Tour four times. 

The line-up will probably include Jakob Fuglsang, Michael Woods, sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo and some key support riders. Israel-Premier Tech also has to think about avoiding relegation from the WorldTour in 2023 and so scoring points after the Tour will also form part of the decision-making process regarding the team. 

As upbeat as ever, Froome is hoping his delayed start to the 2022 season will leave him stronger and fresher into and beyond the summer.   

 “I'm definitely taking a bigger picture approach to the season. I'm looking to have a very active summer. Keep racing late into this year. It has been a slow start but I like the way things are heading now,” he says. 

“Thinking back to earlier years in my career, when I've been flying in February or March, I have struggled to hold onto it past the Tour de France. Whereas taking a slower approach now, hopefully I'll be able to hold onto that level until the end of the season.”

Froome turns 37 on May 20. His 2019 crash and the complex injuries he suffered derailed his Grand Tour career and perhaps stopped him taking a record-equalling fifth Tour de France victory. Last October Froome told Cyclingnews how his injuries and suffering had given him a broader perspective about his life and his career, making him more grateful for the success of his peak years with Team Sky. 

He now sees that part of his career, between his breakthrough win at the 2011 Vuelta a Espana and 2018 when he won the Giro d’Italia, finished third at the Tour de France  as a privileged spell of success.  

“Being away from it all after the crash, I've had time to reflect on that. I realise I was really fortunate to have those opportunities,” he explains.

“In the moment of victory there's a lot of buzz about it but you don't fully appreciate it. Now looking from the other side, I know how difficult it is to get everything 100% right, to be in the mindset and physical position to fight for the victory. To be at 100% is not normal. It really is a privilege.The goal is to try to get back to that kind of level.” 

Dropping his shield and sharing the journey of his final years

Froome’s gradual recovery from his crash injuries and his struggle to return to 100% fitness has been a difficult and bumpy road to take. His own determination and optimism about a successful return has often left him open to criticism. His body still carries the scar of his injuries and he multiple surgeries he needed afterwards but he also has a thicker skin to help protect him from social media haters and critics.        

“You can never keep everyone happy (laughs). If people have expectations, they'll always judge you on your last performance, not what you achieved during your career,” he says. 

“I never fully took on board the perception out there; what people said, what the media said and what was on social media. I tried to shield myself as much as possible in that bubble, not let it affect me as I prepared for the next event.

Froome may not be as successful as he was at the height of his career but he appears more open and available. He has dropped his shield. 

“People said they didn’t know me because I shielded myself, so I've made more of an effort to be more open and show who I am as a person,” he says. 

“I interact more on social media now and even do videos on Youtube. I've enjoyed that process too. Now I’m mature enough to recognise what to listen to and what not to listen to. I’m happy doing my own thing and sharing the journey I'm on now.”   

Froome may never return to his Tour de France winning level or the glory days of 100% fitness and focus he enjoyed at Team Sky.  At 37, his career may not have long to run and his body might not allow to compete at a professional level. However he will decide when and how he quits, not public opinion or criticism on social media.       

“That's not for me. It doesn’t feature in the planning of my career,” indicating he is far from done even if his dream scenario of riding the Tour de France does not come true.  

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

A team on fire - Ben O'Connor leads Decathlon AG2R's search for more success at Giro d'Italia

One year on from Tour of the Gila victory, Killips aiming for record on Arizona Trail

UCI Gravel World Series – Toon Aerts and Tessa Neefjes take victory at Gravel Fondo Limburg

Most Popular

2-FOR-1 GA TICKETS WITH OUTSIDE+

Don’t miss Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, and more at the Outside Festival.

GET TICKETS

BEST WEEK EVER

Try out unlimited access with 7 days of Outside+ for free.

Start Your Free Trial

Powered by Outside

Mauro Gianetti: Tadej Pogačar Embraces the Giro-Tour Challenge Precisely Because it is Very Complicated

Uae team emirates boss suggests giro campaign could make pogačar even stronger in the tour: 'we have no pressure.'.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

Could Tadej Pogačar be a historical outlier?

The Giro d’Italia- Tour de France double hasn’t been done since Marco Pantani in 1998, and since then many big riders such as Cadel Evans, Chris Froome, and Tom Dumoulin have failed in bids to take both races in the same year.

That difficult is enough to deter most riders but, according to UAE Team Emirates Team Principal Mauro Gianetti , that challenge and that uncertainty is precisely why Tadej Pogačar has the lofty goal of taking on both races this year.

“We know it’s quite tough and complicated,” the Swiss ex-pro told Velo . “But if we don’t try, we cannot see if it’s possible or not. And we, and Tadej also, would like to take on the challenge.

“This year is a good opportunity, a good Giro, maybe a little bit less mountains compared to the last year. But the Giro is always a complicated race too, so we need to keep the focus.

“For Tadej, it was interesting to take this challenge, because being very complicated he likes it. And it’s the same for us.”

Pogačar won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 and could have followed the same tried and tested formula to victory in the years since.

However his considerable ambition stretches beyond the Tour and he has had an intensive racing program in the springs of 2022 and 2023.

He arguably did too much prior to the 2022 Tour de France and went into the race overdone, ultimately having to accept second place behind Jonas Vingegaard.

Last year he was hampered by a crash in Liége-Bastogne-Liége, with fractures there leading to him start the Tour without a solid base, and to cracking in the third week.

He was again second overall.

Still, Gianetti keeps the faith and is convinced that his rider has what it takes to take the final yellow jersey.

“Tadej is the strongest rider in the world, there is no doubt about it,” he asserted.

“The two last Tours, one was down to one mistake of Tadej that maybe he was so strong and so good he don’t care so much. We took a good lesson from that.

“And last year, when you crash two months before the Tour, and when he needed to do three weeks without training, completely stopped, it’s no secret. In cycling, you train or you lose the condition.”

Indeed while the runner-up slot of last year was a big disappointment to Pogačar and to his team, Gianetti argues that this very result underlines the quality of the Slovenian.

“No other rider in the world could be second in the Tour de France with what happened to him last year,” he said. “So we are fully confident.”

Using the Italian Tour to build form for July: ‘At the Giro he will be growing day by day’

Pogačar announced the Giro/Tour program back in December, months before his chief Tour rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Primož Roglič crashed heavily on stage four of Itzulia Basque Country.

Roglič escaped serious injury but hasn’t competed since. He is training normally, while Vingegaard and Evenepoel each suffered fractures and had more significant disruptions to their Tour buildup.

It remains to be seen if they will be in top shape for the June 29 start of the race but, in taking on the Giro/Tour double—and bearing in mind the disappointments of Evans, Froome and Dumoulin—the obvious question is could Pogačar be leaving himself open to a less-than-ideal buildup to that race?

Gianetti doesn’t agree with the suggestion. “I don’t think so,” he insists.

Instead he points to Pogačar’s light racing schedule this year, one which has seen him compete just ten days thus far, but win a staggering seven times.

“I think the Giro will be good for him because he will just have a few days of competition before the Giro d’Italia and then he will take a complete recovery time after the Giro and before the Tour.

“So the Giro will be an amazing [he pauses] … we can say ‘training,’ but he will not take the Giro as training, he will aim to do it well, to go for the general classification.

“It will be good because he changed all his race program in the beginning of season. He did only Strade Bianche and San Remo and a few races more before the Giro. And the Giro he will be growing every day. Day by day, he will build his condition like usual.

“If everything is okay, he will finish the Giro in good shape.”

Pogačar’s lighter program this year has seen him do intensive training camps and then drop in and out of competition with spectacular results.

He pulled off an audacious 81 kilometer solo breakaway to win Strade Bianche by 2:44, took the overall classification in the Volta a Catalunya by 3:41, the biggest margin of victory in 41 years and, most recently, launched a 35km solo raid to take Liège-Bastogne-Liège by 1:39.

He’s thriving thus far, is enjoying his racing and, according to Gianetti, has absolutely nothing to lose.

“We have no pressure, we have just the opportunity to try the Giro/Tour double. And we take this opportunity.”

Tadej Pogačar in December 2022: „It is possible to go for the Giro-Tour double, but winning both is hard for the body. You can win both, but then you can feel the consequences. You might end your career. It is a challenge, but it is very difficult.” https://t.co/GPl0k4UMjP pic.twitter.com/ojW3AdHoIh — Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) December 18, 2023

Popular on Velo

What’s it like to be an American cyclist living in France? Watch to get professional road cyclist Joe Dombrowski’s view.

Related content from the Outside Network

One way south, mountain bikers react to their first taste of non-alcoholic craft beer, video review: bmc urs 01 two gravel bike, kiel reijnen vuelta video diary: the painful decision to abandon.

Tour of Romandie win is career-best title for Carlos Rodriguez through rain-slicked final stage

The winner of the Tour de Romandie, Carlos Rodriguez, right, from Spain of team Ineos Grenadier, celebrates on the podium after the fifth and final stage, a 150,8 km race between Vernier and Vernier at the 77th Tour de Romandie UCI World Tour Cycling race, in Vernier near Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Jean-Christophe Bott]

VERNIER, Switzerland (AP) — Carlos Rodriguez has protected his yellow jersey through a rain-soaked final stage to win the six-day Tour of Romandie. It’s the 23-year-old Spaniard’s biggest race victory of his career. Four previous winners in the French-speaking region of Switzerland went on to win that season’s Tour de France, including Chris Froome in 2013. Rodriguez placed fifth in cycling’s marquee event last year. Sunday’s final stage was won in a sprint finish by Dorian Godon. Rodriguez started the flat stage looping round the suburbs of Geneva with a seven-second lead that he maintained over Aleksandr Vlasov.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.