The co-owner of the Israel Premier Tech team, Sylvan Adams, has hit out at Chris Froome's record since he joined the squad, saying he had not been value for money. He added the four-time Tour de France winner was supposed to be the team's leader in the French Grand Tour and yet had not even made the start line this year.
In cutting remarks, that are likely to really annoy Froome, he questioned why the British cyclist would continue with his career now at the level of a "pedestrian domestique". He added while Froome had previously been a leading rider, that was of no value to Israel Premier Tech now. The team wanted performances and top results in big races now.
Adams also believed Froome's lack of results - which led to his non-selection for the Tour de France this year - “have nothing to do with” the life-threatening crash he endured in 2019. While Froome fought back to return to racing, he has been a shadow of his former self in that post-crash period.
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Froome has already expressed his disappointment at not being selected for the Tour, but Adams said all of the riders that were picked had earned their places and that none of them should have been left at home to make way for Froome.
“If he just doesn’t produce results in lower-tier races, would he really want to continue to be a pedestrian domestique on this team? That’s up to Chris. He has my personal commitment: he will retire as a member of Israel-Premier Tech,” Adams said.
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“We took a risk, but we were signing the best Grand Tour rider of this generation, and I was willing to take the risk," Adams added. “It did raise our profile, but this isn’t a PR exercise. My idea was: ‘Wow, we’re going to have somebody to be relevant for the GC at the Tour de France,’ and that hasn’t happened.”
Speaking to the RadioCycling podcast he also tried to point to Froome's record as a great rider but said his tenure at Israel Premier Tech had fallen far short of expectations.
“I am very respectful towards Chris. He is a four-time Tour winner. I respect his past accomplishments, but if you want to be on this year’s Tour team or next year’s Tour team, we don’t care what you did seven years ago, we care about what you have done this year and you need to earn your spot.
"Really we brought him as a GC guy, we didn’t sign him to be a stage hunter - and we all recognise, including Chris, he is not ready to compete for a GC podium, forget about winning, or even close to a podium, so if he wants to come here and hunt for stages he has got to displace one of these guys here and frankly he didn’t earn his spot.
"These guys earned their spots and I feel good about the team I brought here. Chris I know was disappointed but he understood the decision. But of course, he was disappointed because in his heart he believed he could eventually come here and perform."
