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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
wirral

wirral

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Rackham said:
I find the whole Froome situation... strange? I mean look at his palmarès & now look at how literally no one seems to care, not even his 'fans' (who used to be quite vocal on social media at least) seem to follow his races anymore. For anyone like me with a quasi ghoulish interest in where he finishes, you need to wait until PCS updates their final GC classification after a stage to find out what happened to him. It's not like his team's Twitter account is overflowing with info either.

And that's another thing, i.e. when he eventually does retire (sooner the better for his sake) literally no one is going to notice. No fanfare, no huge goodbye, nothing. A man with 4 TdF's who might as well still be the same anonymous rider he was before his transformation at Sky.
Click to expand...
Wherever a situation seems illogical and motivations for an individual's decsions seem odd, it is because the observer is not in possession of the full facts.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

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Red Rick said:
Bruyneel: "I'm sure the team would be happy to pay Froome half his contract up front to just retire right now"
Click to expand...

It's good to see Bruyneel speak about the Froome situation because hardly anyone else does anymore. Cycling also isn't like other sports where former champs can wind down their careers in smaller clubs or whatever (even in tennis someone like Andy Murray can still win the occasional match & get in the news), because in cycling once a rider is dropped from the main bunch, that's it, he's off the tv screen. So the whole 'big name good for exposure' angle never really works in world tour racing.

This was his interview pre-stage yesterday:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iW78tlCSmo


It's just.... awkward.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

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Rackham said:
It's good to see Bruyneel speak about the Froome situation because hardly anyone else does anymore. Cycling also isn't like other sports where former champs can wind down their careers in smaller clubs or whatever (even in tennis someone like Andy Murray can still win the occasional match & get in the news), because in cycling once a rider is dropped from the main bunch, that's it, he's off the tv screen. So the whole 'big name good for exposure' angle never really works in world tour racing.

This was his interview pre-stage yesterday:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iW78tlCSmo


It's just.... awkward.
Click to expand...
Actually, I think normally it's much easier for cycling to wind down but it requires you to simply still be a capable domestique or top 200 rider in the world. Froome in tennis terms wouldn't even hack it in challengers anymore.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

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Red Rick said:
Actually, I think normally it's much easier for cycling to wind down but it requires you to simply still be a capable domestique or top 200 rider in the world. Froome in tennis terms wouldn't even hack it in challengers anymore.
Click to expand...

Froome seemed better in the 2020 Tour de l'Ain than he is now (i.e. he was better with Ineos after his crash than he has been with Israel since his transfer, except for that one Alpe stage in last year's TdF).

That's something no journalist has ever dared ask him about in an interview.
 
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Taxus4a

Taxus4a

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Rackham said:
Froome seemed better in the 2020 Tour de l'Ain than he is now (i.e. he was better with Ineos after his crash than he has been with Israel since his transfer, except for that one Alpe stage in last year's TdF).

That's something no journalist has ever dared ask him about in an interview.
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Tour de L Ain was in August that year. He is always peaking for sunmer and he is always stronger with hot weather. He has never been stronger than last year Tour de France since his crash, with Big difference. He arraived Foix stage with Enric Más and better than Bardet, who were fighting GC , and that is the race with more level of the year. Could he improve that level this year?? It doesnt look, maybe Covid pay him that price, but I cant put It appart...we have to wait.
 
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Gigs_98

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Red Rick said:
Actually, I think normally it's much easier for cycling to wind down but it requires you to simply still be a capable domestique or top 200 rider in the world. Froome in tennis terms wouldn't even hack it in challengers anymore.
Click to expand...
Yeah, he probably got signed with the intention that if he can't be a gc contender anymore, he will at least be a highly visible rider going for gt top tens or stage wins. A lot like what Nibali did after 2019.

Israel surely just couldn't imagine him being this bad. I mean, even the Tour stage that always gets mentioned wasn't that great. He probably doesn't even make it to the break if he doesn't get picked up by the Pidcock train on the Galibier descent. And then he got third out of what was a lackluster breakaway for a TdF mountain stage.
 
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Red Rick

Red Rick

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Gigs_98 said:
Yeah, he probably got signed with the intention that if he can't be a gc contender anymore, he will at least be a highly visible rider going for gt top tens or stage wins. A lot like what Nibali did after 2019.

Israel surely just couldn't imagine him being this bad. I mean, even the Tour stage that always gets mentioned wasn't that great. He probably doesn't even make it to the break if he doesn't get picked up by the Pidcock train on the Galibier descent. And then he got third out of what was a lackluster breakaway for a TdF mountain stage.
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The craziest part is that his best post crash performance was literally with Ineos still in 2020. Particularly in the Vuelta, but he also did some solid turns in Tour del l'Ain
 
Rackham

Rackham

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Red Rick said:
The craziest part is that his best post crash performance was literally with Ineos still in 2020. Particularly in the Vuelta, but he also did some solid turns in Tour del l'Ain
Click to expand...

In his defense, Froome isn't the only rider to perform worse at Israel. Teuns for example is a total no-show since his transfer.

But sure, at Ineos he had the benefit of two things: better team structure... & he was 3 years younger. He's almost 38, so for a GC rider in particular that's already way past the average expiry date.

That's just looking at it as it is, i.e. ignoring the crash which has since been supplemented by long covid as well on the "this is why I'm getting dropped" current year Froomometer excuse scale.
 
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tonymikejoe

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FroomeWagon said:
Let's hope 2024 turns out to be a more productive year for him.
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Spot on, and ironically the man himself, Chris Froome, agrees.
In an interview at the start of the year Froome admitted 2023 probably was not the year he could go for Tour de France victory number five, yet the ultimate dream of another yellow jersey was still alive.
That's it then.
All eyes turn to 2024 for the best opportunity for Froome to join the five-time winners of the Tour..
 
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