Sure he can still win racing in that age group
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Rest days on the Tour are days of frenzied team activity. The runners go out to roll, but those who lead them do not stop. Alsasuarra Óscar Guerrero has been with the Israel Start Up Nation for five seasons. This Monday he had two long meetings. The first to plan the remainder of the season. The second, to see how to face the last third of the Tour, and what to do with Chris Froome. The four-time champion of the race is 131st overall, almost three hours behind Tadej Pogacar.
“When Froomey signed for Israel we already knew where the shots were going. It is a long-term contract. All the previous work that has been done this season, such as the Tour and the Vuelta, if he finally runs it, is focused on the 2022 season ”, Óscar Guerrero commented this Monday from the Tour de France.
In 2020 Chris Froome managed to return to competition after the very serious accident he suffered at the Dauphiné in 2019, in which he almost lost his life. The injuries he suffered were extremely serious, with fractures of the femur, hip, elbow, ribs and internal injuries. At the end of the year, after 11 seasons at INEOS, he announced his departure to Israel, with the aim of achieving a fifth victory on the Tour.
"When Froome came to the team, his body was totally decompensated due to the aftermath of the accident, and because he had not competed for a year and a half," Guerrero sums up. "And based on a lot of work, it has been achieved that this decompensation between one leg and the other is 5%".
Froome has not stopped working to try to go back to being who he was. In winter, he was locked up in a rehabilitation center in Los Angeles. So far this season he has added five concentrations in height in Tenerife, in which he works under the supervision of Xabier Zabalo from Navarra. And between concentration and concentration he has competed in Catalonia, the Alps, Romandía, Dauphiné ...
“I have had to do the entire Froome calendar. And what surprises you the most is the positive attitude he has for everything. He has the firm conviction that, in time, he will go back to being who he was. Mentally it is very strong, superpositive. And he usually says that the example he looks at is that of Valverde, who at 41 and after a serious injury is still there ”.
Chris Froome lives in a difficult dichotomy. In training sessions and concentrations in height, its values (power in watts, capacity, etc.) are good, taking into account where it comes from. But that work he has done is not reflected later in his career. He holds up well in the peloton, but when he faces the decisive point of a pass, in a stage he is not able to hold out with the best.
"I have never seen a rider with the work capacity and mental strength like Froome's," Guerrero explains. “The feeling he has is that the competition costs him, that he follows the peloton and when the peloton pushes, he is mature. But, nevertheless, I have not seen him arrive ground at any stage, except on days with a lot of water ”.
Froome has swelled in the two-thirds of the Tour leading to gregarious work. Raise drums, keep an eye out for their leaders: Woods and Martin. What is the goal of a quadruple Tour winner seeing himself in these circumstances?
“The goal of all Froome races this year has been to improve on the previous one. And on the Tour the objective is going to be to have a good third week and finish with the best possible sensations, ”explains Guerrero. "He is running without any responsibility, the goal is always the next day, to perform better with each passing day."
Guerrero, as has happened to Xabier Zabalo, also from Navarre, in the rallies he has done with him in Tenerife, has close contact with Froome in the races.
“The way of being of Froome dismantles you, as it usually happens to people with Miguel Induráin. You are before great champions who are supernormal people, "he says. “Froomey is a very personable person who treats everyone with an incredible education and is very grateful to the entire team. From what I see him, because of his work capacity, his mental strength and his conviction that he is going to put 200% to return to being what he was. There are many people who would not bet on him, I trust that he will succeed ”.