Chris Froome, with his fourth Tour de France in the bag thanks to one of the strongest final weeks he can remember putting in, is now likely to move on to the Tour of Spain, depending on his form.
“I’ll have to see how I recover from this and how I back up in training going into the Vuelta,” Froome said. “It’s always been the plan to go on and do the Vuelta but I’ll have to see how I shape up over the next 10 days and when I get back into training.”
In the longer term Froome expects to continue riding for the next five years, although he is not sure how long his Tour winning sequence will last. “I’d still like to keep racing into my late thirties and keep competing for the yellow jersey. I’d like to be here for the next five years, trying to win it, but it certainly doesn’t get any easier. This year was the closest it’s ever been for me and it’s only going to be harder next year. I’m definitely getting older.
“Each year I’m learning more, developing as a rider, becoming a more complete rider. I’ve worked on my descending, my positioning in the bunch, but tactically I’ve got more to learn. I hope I can still improve. Every year we’ll have to try and adapt to whatever the Tour throws at us.”
Looking back at this year’s Tour, Froome said he felt the conservative racing among the overall contenders was largely down to the course. “It made it a much more cagey race between the main favourites once we hit the climbs because there were so few summit finishes. We basically ended up following each other and, between us, we were afraid to lay it all on the line in case things didn’t go well and there wasn’t a back-up or an opportunity to rectify it. This year was certainly the hardest for me personally, given the lack of mountain-top finishes and time trial kilometres compared to other years.
“The goal was to be strong in the third week of the Tour and, especially after a couple of hard days in the Alps, it’s worked out really well. Tim Kerrison has been a major part of that and I have him to thank for the planning, coming into the Tour the way I did. I wasn’t quite at my best in the Dauphiné but I’ve never felt this good in the third week of a Grand Tour. Even though I was pushing to the limits, I always felt as if I was in control.”
Froome remains adamant that the ongoing issues around Team Sky – principally the Ukad inquiry into allegations of possible wrongdoing at the team, which are denied by the squad – should have no bearing on his fourth victory, that in no sense should they detract from it. “No. They don’t concern me,” he said. “It’s really something that really doesn’t concern me and I’m not going to waste energy getting myself caught up in it when it doesn’t involve me.”
Some might argue this is bordering on myopia but cutting oneself off from the world and compartmentalising surrounding issues is probably part of being a successful Tour rider. Asked about Dave Brailsford’s run-in with a journalist from cyclingnews.com, which made the news on the rest day, Froome gave a similar reply: “When you have a three-week bike race, especially one that’s been this close for the yellow jersey, it’s not something that’s on your radar. It’s just noise in the background. It’s the same as a Frenchman going ‘Boo’ at the roadside – you hear it but it doesn’t stop you pedalling or going in the direction you need to go.”
(Guardian service)
