If he did well, he would almost certainly be retained and could dream on. Do badly and even his £80,000-a-year contract - for effectively being Wiggins’s servant - would be in serious jeopardy.
During a race in which he surprisingly excelled, finishing second, he began suffering from a burning skin condition. He had to pour water over himself to relieve the pain. The condition was misdiagnosed as eczema by another Sky doctor, Geert Leinders, who prescribed creams. Leinders was later dismissed after his historic role in a doping regime at a former team came to light.
The condition was also misdiagnosed by a GP in South Africa who Froome visited in November 2011, when he again tested positive for bilharzia and had yet another course of treatment.
Only later, after extensive private research by Froome’s girlfriend, now fiancée, Michelle Cound, was the skin complaint identified as urticaria. It is now treated with an antihistamine.
Ailments continued to dog Froome into 2012. A chest complaint forced his withdrawal from the Tour of the Algarve. Another Sky doctor, Richard Usher, was advised by a medical acquaintance to have Froome tested at a hospital in Nice. He had numerous tests, including one for bilharzia, which incorrectly said he was free of it.
Still feeling unwell, he went back to Dr Chunge in Nairobi in March 2012. Not only was the bilharzia still there but Chunge also found typhoid and blastocystosis, the first treated with Gabbroral and Azimax, the second with Orfix, all antibiotics.
Froome recovered just in time for the 2012 Tour de France, where he shot to international attention as a man who looked like he could challenge Wiggins’ supremacy. He helped Wiggins become Britain’s first Tour winner and took second place himself.
It was clear to Team Sky by now that he was a major talent and, when he went for bilharzia testing at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases in November 2012, Team Sky doctors contacted Dr Chunge in Kenya for Froome’s detailed history.
Unfortunately the test came back negative, falsely. Dr Alan Fenwick, director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative at Imperial College, London, said: ‘I can’t believe he would still be infected after four treatments when he was at that age. Hardly anybody I know has had eggs in their stool and in their urine after three treatments when they haven’t been reinfected — and it’s hard to imagine he’d be reinfected when he’s a first-class athlete who knows about schistosomiasis.’
Dr Chunge said Froome had ‘an unusual number of treatments’ but added: ‘It is difficult to determine if the 2011 doses [in France and South Africa] were adequate.’
Cound remained unconvinced at the end of 2012 that European doctors knew enough about a complex problem and, at her insistence, Froome underwent more tests in 2013 in South Africa. Two tests at two separate labs came back positive and Froome was given a heavier dose of Praziquantel.
Finally it worked, although Froome was not to know it until a negative blood test in November 2013. By then his performances had started to show the remarkable rider he is, winning five major races including the Tour de France.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2673588/Chris-Froomes-secret-battle-Eight-doctors-six-clinics-four-countries-five-different-illnesses-remarkable-personal-struggle-Great-Britains-Tour-France-champion.html#ixzz3iH8NL4WE
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