Chris Froome’s agent was seeking just €100,000 in annual
salary for the British rider on the eve of the Vuelta in 2011; the race where
he made his breakthrough.
EF Education First team boss Jonathan Vaughters has
described Froome as “the one that got away”, saying before that Vuelta he had a
loose verbal agreement to sign him.
Froome’s agent was looking for €100,000 per year for the
2012 season for the now four-time Tour de France winner.
However, while a loose arrangement was in place to do
that deal on the first rest day at the race, Froome enjoyed a breakthrough
ride.
The asking price then went up to €500,000, which Vaughters
said he could not afford and so Froome stayed with Team Sky.
He went on to finish 2nd in that Vuelta and has recently
been awarded the victory as the declared winner at the time, Juan Jose Cobo,
has since had the victory taken away because of doping.
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Vaughters said that at the time he almost signed Froome, Thor
Hushovd was the star of his Garmin-Cervélo WorldTour team.
However, he said he let the former world champion go
because he did not think he would sustain the success he had enjoyed.
Because he let Hushovd leave, Vaughters said Cervélo were very annoyed with him.
As a result, when Froome - who now earns millions each year - was available and the price for him jumped, Cervélo refused to meet the asking price.
“I went back (to the sponsors) and I asked for an
increase in budget, if I could have an extra €400,000 from our sponsorship group
to sign this rider who was still totally unknown,” Vaughters explained of
Froome.
“And they said, ‘JV, you just lost Thor Hushovd you moron
so, no, we’re not giving you €400,000 to get a guy called Chris Room or
whatever it is’.”
However, Vaughters added Froome has always looked after
very closely on windy and flat stages to be positioned properly in the bunch.
And he doubted if his team could have offered Froome the
same support to keep him positioned before he could let fly on the climbs.
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