Chris Froome moves among the crowds, fans and fellow riders at the Tour de France criteriums in Saitama and Singapore appearing very much at home – much has changed for the rider since he first lined up in the debut of the Japanese event in 2013. However, his continued presence and profile here speaks of the unbreakable bond between the four-time winner and the race.
Froome may not be walking into the Asian showcase events with the hype of retiring Tour de France stage record holder Mark Cavendish but even though he hasn’t raced the Grand Tour since 2022 the Israel-Premier Tech rider he is still a crucial drawcard. That horrible accident at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné may have changed plenty, but it couldn’t wipe out the wins already etched into the history books, memories of the spectators and even perhaps the DNA of the rider.
“It is THE race on the cycling calendar, and obviously, having been fortunate enough to have won that four times, it's pretty cool to be able to come to these events and be able to meet the fans who watched all those years of racing,” Froome said in an interview with Cyclingnews and Velonews in Singapore before the showcase Tour de France criterium in the tropical city and after the event in Saitama.
“And, yeah, I mean, obviously the last few years haven't been there in the Tour in the same capacity as I was previously, but of course, it remains, for me, a really, really special event.”
That’s why, when looking ahead to what Froome would like to be on the calendar after he has had a chance to sit down in December with his team at training camp, the Tour de France is still on the wishlist for the rider who is heading into the final year of his contract with Israel-Premier Tech.
“In a perfect world, I'd love to go back to the Tour, but failing that a Grand Tour, at least for one final push on the road,” Froome said. “I mean, I haven't definitively decided that it will be my last season next year, but it's looking more than likely.
“But to go back to a Grand Tour would be a really special way to finish it off, so whether that's the Tour or the Vuelta or the Giro…"
The 39-year-old rider, however, is all too aware that it isn't a perfect world.
"I'm realistic about where I'm at," said Froome when asked about his changing role and outlook on his involvement with the French Grand Tour. "To be honest, I mean, I think it answers your question that I haven't even looked at next year's route yet."
If Froome did line up at one of the crucial three-week events in 2025, he sees his value to the team coming in the form of a support and mentorship role.
Sliding doors
Cavendish, who raced his first Tour de France just a year before Froome, was lining up alongside Froome in Singapore celebrating a record-breaking fairytale ending.
However, long before the rider from the Isle of Man was equalling and then beating the stage win record, Froome had a different record, the overall general classification mark, within reach. By 2017 he was just one more win away from finding himself cited alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain as a winner of five editions of the Tour de France.
A fifth victory escaped him in 2018, when he came third after having won the Giro d'Italia, but hopes were high for 2019 until that moment when he was airlifted to hospital after suffering several fractures, including a broken femur, fractures to his hip, elbow, sternum, and vertebrae
Though, as much as that high-speed 2019 crash while out on a recon of the time trial course may have been a sliding door moment, Froome indicated he is, as a rule, loathe to get too caught up in what can't be changed.
"I think I'm quite lucky," said Froome. "I don't really harp on what's happened, good or bad, and I think that's something that's always helped me in my career," Froome said. "Especially as a cyclist, because there are just countless hurdles and upsets that arise along the way, if you spend too much time really just thinking about everything it can trip you up mentally, whereas I'm always very much focused on what's coming and what's in the future."
Though, as he sits amiably discussing his career past, present and future in the cool of the Singapore race hotel – an environment as much removed from the pressure of an intense race season as it is from the humid hot conditions the riders will face outside as they take on the criterium – Froome openly conceded he wasn't totally immune from contemplating what could have been.
"2019 was certainly a massive turning point in my career but that's sport, that's life – I mean injuries happen, accidents happen so I take that on the chin and get on with doing best I can do," Froome said.
"Yeah, there is still a part of me that I feel, more just because of the form I was in 2019 when I crashed. I really felt that I was probably more ready for the Tour than I had been in the years prior to that," said the 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 winner who had come third in 2018.
"I was feeling on a completely different level in 2019 compared to 16, 17 and 18, so I was so eager to get into that time trial that day at the Dauphiné, basically that, for me was the day it all started, really, in terms of the Tour, and the Tour build-up was at that Dauphiné. So there is a part of me that's like: it's frustrating, but, at the same time, I can accept that. That's life. Shit happens."
One goal may have been gone for the rider, who hasn't been able to add to his impressive win tally since that 2019 crash, but the fact that he worked his way back into the peloton means that there is another that Froome looks set to comfortably reach when his birthday rolls around again in May.
"As a younger rider entering the sport, I'd always put getting to the age of 40 and still be racing as my goal," said Froome. "It was always to me, I want to do the best I can do until 40, and that's my window."
Still, it was a goal not a deadline, so while Saitama and Singapore could well have another big farewell on their hands in 2025, it's certainly not yet set in stone.
"I guess towards the end of next year I need to be able to make that decision," said Froome.
