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Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

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Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 33 32.0%

  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 59 57.3%

  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 23 22.3%
  • Total voters
    103
pink_jersey

pink_jersey

Apr 20, 2012
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On his insta, there is a pic from 7 days ago with him standing.
I'm not expert, but c'mon, his right leg is looking like the leg of an average person, compared to his left. Also, it still looks swollen I'd say. It's actually strange. I think it's more complicated than we think.
 
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ppanther92

May 3, 2015
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Not saying I had the same degree of injury as Froome had (not close fortunately) but I also had a pretty severe leg and knee injury some years ago which required two operations and a cast for 6 weeks and clutches for 10 more. Cycling was a part of recovery that was required from me by my physio, so I did that a lot (would have done it anyway though). I certainly struggled a lot the whole year with power output on my injured leg and it was even rather noticeable the next year (visually and performance wise). Then it evened out. No problems today (at least in terms of cycling).

Still I think, that Froome will not improve much. He had now focused solely on recovery and getting back in shape for almost two years with probably the best support one could think of. I am just not seeing it. At all. A bit of a shame, I agree. Never liked him (or actually actively rooted against him, tbh) but would of course now like one last big victory for him, seeing how he struggles. But in my book he is farther away from that than in 2011 before his transformation.
 
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geisterhome

geisterhome

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There just seems to be some some permanent damage, that thing with 20% less power, it sounds like it is just not completely reversible cos I remember him saying that he will have to continue to do additional strength training for the rest of his carreer to counteract those imbalances. If he is handicaped like that I dont know how good he can become in terms of being an elite rider on WT level.
 
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TMJ

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Unfortunately Chris Froome is not even at the level of what Lance Armstrong calls "packfill".
Today, he finished 5mins and 13secs behind the peloton on a relatively straightforward stage.
He came back to competitive cycling as long ago as February, 2020 and has not noticeably improved.
Maybe Chris can see "progression" but nobody else can.
 
Ripper

Ripper

Sep 14, 2009
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He is not maintaining with the main group on a first and not too challenging stage. This is not progression according to any training methods known to be effective (unless he is going to ride long slow distance all the way to victory). If he suddenly progresses we will not be able to have an honest conversation about it on this thread. He could make a massive improvement and still be nowhere close to where he needs to be.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

Jul 16, 2015
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Tinnekeisabella said:
It is sad but I do not see any signs of him getting anywhere to his level of the past...

he is supposed to ride the tour no? Going to be humiliating again Pog and Rog.

Maybe if he would accept the old tour wins wont come back and chase stage victories? But even that seems unlikely.
Click to expand...

He should have toned down the ambitious statements (i.e. saying you're going for a 5th Tour when making top 50 will be difficult isn't smart) & he should have negotiated a contract more in line with the ambitions of a recovering former champion (only because public perception is way harsher now than it could have been). But right now he's looking worse & worse to the point where making the time cut in the Tour's more demanding stages could be very difficult. Forget Pog & Rog, that would be total humiliation.

But by that point I'd expect a discrete little "Abandon Christopher Froome" to appear on screen during a stage, far away from motorcycle cameras.

Also, his problem with regards to chasing stages is the fact he never really was a "racer" like Valverde for example (who could still punch & drag himself to victories when he's nowhere near his best) & attacking in small breakaway groups doesn't seem like his specialty either. He used to win with massive watts on the hardest stages. That's cooked now.
 
PremierAndrew

PremierAndrew

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Rackham said:
He should have toned down the ambitious statements (i.e. saying you're going for a 5th Tour when making top 50 will be difficult isn't smart) & he should have negotiated a contract more in line with the ambitions of a recovering former champion (only because public perception is way harsher now than it could have been). But right now he's looking worse & worse to the point where making the time cut in the Tour's more demanding stages could be very difficult. Forget Pog & Rog, that would be total humiliation.

But by that point I'd expect a discrete little "Abandon Christopher Froome" to appear on screen during a stage, far away from motorcycle cameras.

Also, his problem with regards to chasing stages is the fact he never really was a "racer" like Valverde for example (who could still punch & drag himself to victories when he's nowhere near his best) & attacking in small breakaway groups doesn't seem like his specialty either. He used to win with massive watts on the hardest stages. That's cooked now.
Click to expand...

Glad you're not my agent.

"Here's a $5M contract"
"Actually, I would prefer $1M"
 
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Rackham

Rackham

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PremierAndrew said:
Glad you're not my agent.

"Here's a $5M contract"
"Actually, I would prefer $1M"
Click to expand...

Within the context of Froome's career, the question is how much money did he already have & is the added responsibility, pressure & team expectation (+ public perception/expectation) worth the extra cash?

I mean from where he was (4x Tour winner with Sky) I'm going to assume $5m (or is it $6m?) might have been little more than pocket change. We're talking about someone who was really wealthy already. Sebastian Vettel in f1 is currently experiencing something a bit similar, i.e. ex-champion earning more than his teammate & performing worse (& getting ridiculed by fans).

Whatever way people spin these types of deals, it's not worth the money IMO. And the reason I mention the money here is because that's "why" Froome is getting roasted. It makes for a juicy story (i.e. overpaid ex champ who bit off way more than he could chew flops badly) & the overall mood online is "let's see where he finishes today & grab some popcorn".

All when public opinion could & should have been "I hope Froome does well because he's really trying hard & making all sorts of sacrifices to race again & get back into shape". The bad optics is all his fault.
 
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Tinnekeisabella

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I think it would have been good if he had agreed on less salary (like 1 million). Of course he had hoped he could come back to his old self, but I am sure by the time he signed that contract he knew he would not.

But not sure he is willing to accept it himself. I saw he was visibly annoyed by the cameras staying with him when he dropped (not sure where it was, catalunya?). This is the price you pay for still being on that big of contract. The expectations are still high.
 
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ppanther92

May 3, 2015
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CyclistAbi said:
I am rather sure that Froome is not that bad.
Click to expand...
And I am rather sure he is. What is the point in purposefully missing the TdF team last year, losing his Ineos contract, and now getting immense pressure by the team, media and fans? The only half reasonable argument would be that he is considered an outsider with more leeway at the Tour but even if we assume this is indeed the plan, I think he would be hurting his and the team's confidence in a way that cannot be outweighed by the outsider status with getting no results at all.
 
perico

perico

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Eeslliw said:
Guys, can you imagine if Froome is realy acting and comes to Tour smashing everybody. People's head would explode. I need to refill my popcorn stock for summer.
Click to expand...

The only rider I can remember who looked as bad as Froome does now and then won the Tour was LeMond, and even he started to show some form in the 3rd week of the Giro in 1989 (though he was thought to be even worse off in 1990 and still won).

LeMond was in his prime though.

Everyone else usually showed at least a glimpse of form beforehand. Ullrich always looked terrible but he would still be near the front in the TTs before the Tour. Contador may have come from the beach to win the 2008 Giro, but he’d been winning all year prior to his break, and finished in the Top 10 of his only race before he won the 2012 Vuelta, and he was the dominant rider all year before is injury prior to the 2014 Vuelta. Pantani was climbing well in the 3rd week of the 2000 Giro.

This is more like Merckx in his final year or two. It would be rather pathetic if their prior results didn’t demand your respect.
 
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