Having been the best Grand Tour rider of his generation, only to suffer a career-threatening crash, Chris Froome is currently battling hard to re-find his form.
Both Froome and his new team, Israel Start-Up Nation, have previously repeatedly said his goal is to get back to his best and win a fifth Tour de France.
However, Froome and one of his team managers have both
now expressed some concern and frustration about his slower than expected rate
of progress.
Most significantly, the team’s directeur sportif Rik Verbrugghe has doubted if a fifth Tour challenge is realistic. He added the young riders now at the top of the sport are so good he wondered if Froome at his peak would be able to beat them.
The latest remarks from both rider and directeur came in separate interviews in Belgium and Switzerland. They are a long way off the bullish comments from the Israel Start-Up Nation camp since Froome’s intention to sign for the team, from Ineos Grenadiers, was first broken by cyclingnews last season.
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“He's a bit behind schedule but we knew this could happen,” said Verbrugghe of Froome’s current condition, making those comments in a just published interview with Het Nieuwsblad.
“The most important thing is that we continue to work as we do and that as a team we continue to believe. We hope (Froome's form) will be there again by the summer.”
Verbrugghe added he and the team still believed that Froome, who has struggled in most races but shown flashes of improved climbing ability from time to time, could get much better.
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“I’m convinced he’ll be very close to his best level; if not this season, then next,” Verbrugghe said, adding Froome may need to continue racing this year and have another winter of training before he improves.
“But whether that will be enough to cope with the emerging youth; I don't know,” Verbrugghe said. “Maybe even the best Chris Froome wouldn't beat those young guys.
“Every athlete needs a goal; for Chris it’s a fifth Tour
win. If he didn't strive for that we could write him off now. It is his
motivation that can bring him back to his old level. For athletes like Chris
Froome, the track record is much more of a motivation than money.”
For his part, Froome has been honest about his condition since coming back last year after his career-threatening crash in June, 2019, on a recon ride of the TT at the Dauphiné. And in an interview in Switzerland he said he was carrying extra weight and had a lot more work to do.
Froome was speaking to the newspaper on the occasion of his ride in the Tour de Romandie, where yesterday he looked to be in solid condition, only losing 43 seconds to the 37-rider peloton on a day when the race was split to pieces.
"I still feel hungry to race and do everything I can
to get back to my best," he said, before expressing some frustrations and
conceding there would be no one big moment when his recovery would simply click
into place.
He also explained he was carrying up to 3kg extra weight
due to muscle mass gain in his upper body, apparently from working on his core
and an imbalance of strength in his legs due to his crash.
“It's a long process. It's taking longer than expected,”
he said. “But I don't want to miss the chance. In a few years I want to look
back and be able to know myself that I've tried everything.”
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