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Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

Page 630 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 37 34.6%
  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 59 55.1%
  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 23 21.5%

  • Total voters
    107
Well, he was easily, by a good margin, the most hated rider online (and I'd assume IRL among cycling fans) for years and years without a doubt.

lance+armstrong+wave.jpg
 
The iron extortionist!
I'm kinda impressed by the fact that managed to convince the team to sign him for 4.5M per year before he actually showed anything after the injury. I doubt a super competitive guy like him is too happy about the situation, but maybe he found his peace and is just trying to mild a few extra millions for his family.
 
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The iron extortionist!
I'm kinda impressed by the fact that managed to convince the team to sign him for 4.5M per year before he actually showed anything after the injury. I doubt a super competitive guy like him is too happy about the situation, but maybe he found his peace and is just trying to mild a few extra millions for his family.
Guess there's a bit of a difference between still being mildly competitive and overpaid as hell and just pure pack fodder.
 
The iron extortionist!
I'm kinda impressed by the fact that managed to convince the team to sign him for 4.5M per year before he actually showed anything after the injury. I doubt a super competitive guy like him is too happy about the situation, but maybe he found his peace and is just trying to mild a few extra millions for his family.
My dislike for Froome is strong, but I would agree that he's not likely too happy about it, it's got to be really frustrating. I mean why bother going through the rigor, pain, and discomfort of professional cycling, as a huge former champion, if you're not going to get results. The sponsors can't be happy, he has to be feeling it on some level, and I can't imagine an athlete who used to compete at that level and win easily would be happy about getting shelled by nobodies every time the road points uphill. I would be incredibly frustrated.

I don't think anyone, least of all Froome, expected his comeback to be this difficult for this long. He might have thought "maybe I'll never be quite what I was" but I don't think he ever thought he'd be worse than he was before he suddenly and amazingly became a world beater.

He got the contract he got. Maybe he'll hang it up at some point, but there is no reason why he shouldn't take the pay he's getting. I'm sure he's doing everything he can be doing to try and get back to where he was.
 
For the last two days Chris Froome has been very active early on trying to get into the break of the day.
When's the last time he's tried to do that?
No wonder he failed both times.
SORRY CHRIS : I've started watching live pictures and Froome is in the break of the day. (In the race text on this site it seemed he didn't make it).
C'mon Chris!
 
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Off the bike, Froome does seem like a nice guy.

You gotta have thick skin to be a cycling fan on most boards, especially this one. Evans fans had it really bad at one point. For all the Contador fans here in his later career, I was around cycling boards during “the comeback” in 2009 and then years of clembuterol steak references.

There’s also the fact that cycling has historically been dominated by a handful of nations through different eras: France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Holland... Most of us who were around for the first foreign explosion in the 1980s were able to understand it. LeMond was a true physical freak of nature, and Roche was a 1 year wonder who always showed potential to do something special. You could wrap your head around the successful Columbians because a) cycling was hugely popular in their country and b) it made sense that Columbia would produce great pure climbers. Even in the 1990s, the results now were obviously skewed because of clinical issues but at the time, it made sense if you weren’t looking at the speeds because you had Spanish, Italians, and French riders dominating.

All of a sudden, you had this behemoth from a country who had forgotten about LeMond and Hampsten completely dominate the sport for the better part of a decade. After Armstrong, all of a sudden you see what seems like a carbon copy pop up and dominate the sport again in the same manner of suffocating the sport. There’s going to be resentment when they produce 3 different TDF winners in an eight year span, and win all but 1 of the Tdfs.

Those riders are going to have their haters. When Contador was dominating the sport, it was vicious. His fan base didn’t overtake the rest until he was the seen as the only rider capable of beating Sky.

Froome became the face of Sky after toiling in obscurity. It upset the apple cart. Today, I think Pogacar has it much easier despite coming from a cycling afterthought of a country because he rides like Contador and has been winning since he was a junior. Otherwise the rise of Slovenia would be causing all sorts of alarms dealt with in another sub forum (where I’m sure it already is but it’s not enough to be leaking over).

Watching Froome now you feel for the guy. You admire the determination to get back, but you look at Valverde, who was not far off when he returned from his injury. Froome’s injuries were worse, and he looks like a shell of what he was. You feel for the guy. You want him to succeed and show flashes of what he once was, but it would undoubtedly raise the ire again of those who aren’t fans. We’re he to win a GT, it would be brutal.
 
Off the bike, Froome does seem like a nice guy.

You gotta have thick skin to be a cycling fan on most boards, especially this one. Evans fans had it really bad at one point. For all the Contador fans here in his later career, I was around cycling boards during “the comeback” in 2009 and then years of clembuterol steak references.

There’s also the fact that cycling has historically been dominated by a handful of nations through different eras: France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Holland... Most of us who were around for the first foreign explosion in the 1980s were able to understand it. LeMond was a true physical freak of nature, and Roche was a 1 year wonder who always showed potential to do something special. You could wrap your head around the successful Columbians because a) cycling was hugely popular in their country and b) it made sense that Columbia would produce great pure climbers. Even in the 1990s, the results now were obviously skewed because of clinical issues but at the time, it made sense if you weren’t looking at the speeds because you had Spanish, Italians, and French riders dominating.

All of a sudden, you had this behemoth from a country who had forgotten about LeMond and Hampsten completely dominate the sport for the better part of a decade. After Armstrong, all of a sudden you see what seems like a carbon copy pop up and dominate the sport again in the same manner of suffocating the sport. There’s going to be resentment when they produce 3 different TDF winners in an eight year span, and win all but 1 of the Tdfs.

Those riders are going to have their haters. When Contador was dominating the sport, it was vicious. His fan base didn’t overtake the rest until he was the seen as the only rider capable of beating Sky.

Froome became the face of Sky after toiling in obscurity. It upset the apple cart. Today, I think Pogacar has it much easier despite coming from a cycling afterthought of a country because he rides like Contador and has been winning since he was a junior. Otherwise the rise of Slovenia would be causing all sorts of alarms dealt with in another sub forum (where I’m sure it already is but it’s not enough to be leaking over).

Watching Froome now you feel for the guy. You admire the determination to get back, but you look at Valverde, who was not far off when he returned from his injury. Froome’s injuries were worse, and he looks like a shell of what he was. You feel for the guy. You want him to succeed and show flashes of what he once was, but it would undoubtedly raise the ire again of those who aren’t fans. We’re he to win a GT, it would be brutal.
I think apart from being one of the greatest comebacks in sport if he won a GT, it would be absolutely hilarious to see all the bile pouring out of various people. Of course i have more chance of going to mars ...
 
Froome trounced Contador the most popular figure on this forum by a wide margin year after year after year that's the entire origin of the Froome=bad narrative.

To be honest I never cared for either Contador (I used to cheer for Andy Schleck myself) or Froome. I also thought Froome rides weird (i.e. permanently looking at his handlebars with his head wobbling & arms sticking out), but you guys have to be real here for a second & realize it's the absurd publicly stated ambition of winning the Tour de France (against Pogacar & Roglic no less!) combined with his biggest contract in cycling which leaves the man open to a bit of fun banter online. He can't hide behind a "I'm a miracle for merely riding again after my accident" whilst at the same time saying he's planning to win the Tour de France.

If someone like Valverde (i.e. who is magnitudes stronger than Froome right now) stated he wanted to win the Tour, people would scratch their heads & go "nope, I don't think so". So imagine Froome....

IMO it's a PR disaster where a nice narrative of post-accident comeback is marred by a ridiculous contract & ridiculous goals.
 
Froome trounced Contador the most popular figure on this forum by a wide margin year after year after year that's the entire origin of the Froome=bad narrative.
That's the single most pathetic take I can think of.

I for one can't see a single reason to look at everything that happened with Sky in the 2010s and then go "yeah lol give me more of that" please.
 
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