Chris Froome is gunning for a return to the Tour de France next season after Israel-Premier Tech owner Sylvan Adams claimed he “didn’t earn his spot” at this year’s edition.
Adams publicly criticised the four-time yellow jersey winner during the race, telling Cycling Weekly that signing Froome was “absolutely not” value for money.
“We were a little team and overnight we were hoping to become contenders at the Tour,” Adams said at the time. “It did raise our profile, but this isn’t a PR exercise. My idea was, ‘Wow, we’re going to have somebody to be relevant for the GC at the Tour de France’ and that hasn’t happened.”
Froome maintained a dignified silence during the Tour, in which the team won a stage with Michael Woods, and in Japan ahead of Sunday’s Saitama Criterium has reiterated his passion for racing and firm intention to see out his contract with the squad.
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“We’re in contact relatively regularly but no, no hard feelings,” Froome told Cyclingnews when asked about Adams’ commentary.
“I mean his frustrations are understandable but, yeah, that’s how it is. I’m contracted for another two years. I signed a five-year contract when I joined. I still feel like there’s more in the legs and I want to go out having given it my all. I’m not going to give up on it.
“I’ve had much worse said about me.”
Froome transferred from Ineos to Israel Start-Up Nation, as the team was then called, back in 2021, when he was coming back from a life-threatening crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphine. He had to learn to walk again after colliding into a wall at 37mph (60km/h) during a time trial recon. At the time, he was the benchmark of Grand Tour racing, and he believes on course for victory in that edition of the Dauphine and try to take a fifth Tour.
“I don’t think I’ve really talked about it that much, but just before that crash I couldn’t wait for that day specifically, that time trial, I was raring to go,” Froome recalled.
“I’d set three PBs in the training camp just before that Dauphine, so I was back to 2015 kind of numbers, so I was really looking forward to that time trial especially. I felt as if I was on my way to winning that Dauphine, which obviously [as the] last race before the Tour, I was in a great place.
“Cycling is full of ‘what ifs’ and ‘had things been different’, but it’s not really something that I harp on too much. I just know I was in a great place to challenge for the 2019 Tour de France, but that’s life and sport and you’ve got to get on it with and make the most of where I’m at now.”
Israel-Premier Tech cancelled a scheduled training camp in Israel this month due to the ongoing war in Gaza, but Froome declined to mix politics with sport. “It’s extremely tragic what’s happening in the Middle East right now,” he said.
The 38-year-old is due to map out his 2024 race program with team management at a December camp in Girona, Spain. Froome competed in several one-day races this year but is focused on adding more week-long stage races to his schedule next.
“It’s no secret, I’m definitely not a one-day race specialist. Even at my peak I wasn’t able to win a one-day race or even be in the top 10,” he said.
“I still went into them trying to give it everything but I’m just not one of those guys who can get 110 per cent out on one day. My strength always came in once fatigue starts setting in, when you’re days into a stage race."
"That’s where I felt I was always able to basically continue the same as how I came in, as opposed to other guys whose peak power starts dropping off."
“I really hope next year I can focus more on stage racing. And I’ve made some big changes to the position on the bike and I’m hoping that will help me get closer to my old ways again."
“I’d love to go back to the Tour de France, there’s no doubt about that. But I think basically just focusing on a stage race program where I’m doing stage races as opposed to one-day events, and especially in the build-up to the Tour, try and select a few stages races where I can try and be up there and be competitive.”
A change in position
Missing the Tour this year provided Froome with time to reflect and notice a discrepancy on his bike set-up, which he figures was the cause of lower back pain he’d notice after two to three hours in the saddle.
“At first I thought it was age starting to catch up with me but then I started questioning my position actually on the bike and then started comparing it. I had one of my old bikes from Team Sky/Ineos days so I was able to compare the position on the two different bikes. I found that my reach, so from saddle to the handlebars, was over three centimetres of difference between the two bikes, longer on the current bike,” he said.
“I took my old bike and went to a specialist and found very big discrepancies between my positions. But now we’ve made some big changes, more than centimetres in terms of saddle height, in terms of the reach, it’s really a lot, we’re not talking millimetres.”
Froome described the discrepancy as an “oversight” but one that has since been rectified and he hopes will make a difference to his 2024 campaign.
“It's a positive thing for me. I’ve found it’s given me a lot of added motivation now because it might be part of the puzzle, missing pieces, as to why I haven’t quite found the level that I’ve wanted to get to,” he said.
“I love racing my bike, I love being part of a team with a shared goal and vision. And even though I’m not there putting my hands in the air winning like I did previously, this, for me, is still living the dream.”
Froome’s best result since his horror accident was a third-place finish atop Alpe d’Huez behind Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) at the Tour last year. And he is keen to push for similar protagonism in the same race again.
As he put it, “If I can get back to the Tour de France and be there when the race gets selective, when there are fewer guys left on the climbs - whether it’s fighting for a stage win again or even trying to ride whatever position on GC again...to me, just to be back in the race, when the race gets selective, that for me would be the dream.”
