Chris Froome's presence at Tirreno-Adriatico marks his first appearance at WorldTour level since April of last year and the Briton insists his focus is still on returning to the Tour de France in 2024.
Froome was left out of the Israel-Premier Tech Tour squad last season after calling it his “ultimate goal.” while his team justified their selection by describing the eight riders selected as being “best suited to fulfilling our performance objectives”.
It’s been a long journey back to try to reach top form for Froome ever since his horrific life-threatening crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2019, but the 38-year-old still hopes he can make it back to the race he won four times and dominated in the 2010s.
“The goal for me is to try and get to the Tour in the best shape possible this year,” Froome told Cyclingnews before stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico.
“First of all, get to the Tour after having missed out last year. I'd really like to get back there again this year.”
Aside from 2019, when he fractured his femur, elbow and ribs, 2023 was the only year Froome failed to start a Grand Tour since 2008, when he made his debut at the Tour.
Tirreno-Adriatico forms part of Froome’s build-up to a possible 11th appearance at the three-week race, with each appearance from now until the start in June in Florence all important for Israel-Premier Tech’s selection process.
The Brit was called up late as a replacement for Derek Gee who broke his collarbone at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February.
“Looking forward to getting some WorldTour racing in the legs. This is the first WorldTour event I'm doing this year after Rwanda and some time at altitude as well,” Froome said.
“So just looking forward to getting back into it again and continuing a steady build towards the Tour.
“It basically comes down to team selection, and I imagine looking at the stage races building up to the Tour will be part of that. So this is this is where it starts.”
Froome has faced public backlash for his performances from team owner Sylvan Adams during his time at Israel-Premier Tech, with the billionaire calling him “not value for money” during last year's Tour.
Adams signed Froome on a five-year contract from Ineos (Team Sky) in 2021 with the hope he could rediscover his form and win a fifth Tour, but Froome has rarely come close to his previous levels.
He's had moments close to finding success again, with third on L'Alpe d'Huez at the 2022 Tour behind Tom Pidcock, but his last pro win came at the 2018 Giro when he audaciously attacked 80km from the line to snatch overall victory on stage 19..
“How could we say we had value for money? We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here so that cannot be considered value for money,” Adams told Cycling Weekly.
“This is not a PR exercise. Chris isn’t a symbol, he isn’t a PR tool, he’s supposed to be our leader at the Tour de France and he’s not even here, so no I couldn’t say he’s value for money.”
Froome told Cyclingnews in November that he has no intention of ending his time in the sport before at least seeing out the two remaining years on his contract, ensuring there was no bad blood with Adams.
"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," Froome said.
