not easy at the time but when you looked at the bigger picture
you saw the benefits. It toughened him.
Everything Froome says is delivered in well-formed and politely expressed sentences but you soon learn not to confuse politeness with softness. The other memory came from the corner of
Froome’s soul where you find granite.
The conversation had turned to the coming season and how he felt about riding the Tour de France in the same team as the defending champion, Bradley Wiggins. ‘What I want,’ he said,
‘is to arrive at the start in Corsica with my chance to win the race. Nothing more, nothing less.’ What he didn’t say but wanted you to know is that he would have his chance to
win this year, no matter what. His intensity recalled what Apollo Creed said to Rocky Balboa: ‘Now, when we fought, you had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge!’
Two weeks later, Froome rode his first race of the year, the Tour of Oman. On the fourth day he rode well to finish second to Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez on Green Mountain, took the
leader’s jersey and attended to the usual podium, media and anti-doping duties. A car waited to take him the twenty kilometres to the team hotel.
‘The car’s over there,’ someone said.
‘It’s okay, I’ll ride back, a little extra training.’
Eye of the tiger, man.
He is the man.
When I speak to Bradley Wiggins he appears to acknowledge this.
‘When we go to the Tour and the form guide says Chris is the man, I will be supporting Chris, we’re in a team and that’s why we’re successful.’
First though, a brief reminder of some things which happened on the 2012 Tour de France – the race which turned Bradley Wiggins from sideburned mod into knight of the realm and national
institution. Froome was there for another stint of stoical servitude.
Stage Seven. The climb into La Planche des Belles Filles. Tough. Tough. Tough. The gradient goes from 14 per cent to 22 per cent. And you’ve had a long day. Richie Porte did his dog work
and when he handed over to Froome only Wiggins, Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe remained in contention. And Froome.
Froome injected some pace into the business. Evans went with a kilometre to go but he had miscalculated. Froome, Wiggins and Nibali trailed after him like the tail on a kite. With 100m to go the
stage was anybody’s, so Chris Froome decided to make it his. He nipped around Nibali for his first ever stage win. Wiggins finished a couple of seconds behind Evans. All were happy.
‘Now he has got his stage and he is going to be an integral part of me winning this race,’ said Wiggins, his presumption barely masking the fear that Froome wouldn’t be
satisfied with one stage win.
So to Stage Eleven. 148km to La Toussuire. All was looking well heading into the first real mountaintop finish. Wiggins in yellow.
It is said that at a team meeting that morning, Froome had inquired if he had permission to attack from 3km out. That, he was told, would depend on Bradley. Froome’s eagerness was fed, not
just by his natural competitiveness, but by a puncture on the first day of racing which had cost him 1'25". He felt he could do his work for Wiggins and get a podium finish for himself, but only if
he was allowed to retrieve the time lost by puncturing.
Circumstances were different from La Vuelta, as by now Wiggins had two minutes on Froome, but letting Froome jump early could mean that Nibali and Evans would tag along with him eating into
Wiggins’s lead as he went. Whatever, nothing would be allowed to damage the team’s pursuit of the Tour’s yellow jersey.
An attack from that far out? It’s unlikely, Froome was told, but maybe in the last 500m. As it happened, Evans launched a madcap attack with 56km to go but got burned on the Croix de Fer,
the second savage
hors catégorie
climb of the day.
The last climb of the day is La Toussuire, 18km of torture. Richie Porte takes his turn at the front. The peloton
you saw the benefits. It toughened him.
Everything Froome says is delivered in well-formed and politely expressed sentences but you soon learn not to confuse politeness with softness. The other memory came from the corner of
Froome’s soul where you find granite.
The conversation had turned to the coming season and how he felt about riding the Tour de France in the same team as the defending champion, Bradley Wiggins. ‘What I want,’ he said,
‘is to arrive at the start in Corsica with my chance to win the race. Nothing more, nothing less.’ What he didn’t say but wanted you to know is that he would have his chance to
win this year, no matter what. His intensity recalled what Apollo Creed said to Rocky Balboa: ‘Now, when we fought, you had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge!’
Two weeks later, Froome rode his first race of the year, the Tour of Oman. On the fourth day he rode well to finish second to Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez on Green Mountain, took the
leader’s jersey and attended to the usual podium, media and anti-doping duties. A car waited to take him the twenty kilometres to the team hotel.
‘The car’s over there,’ someone said.
‘It’s okay, I’ll ride back, a little extra training.’
Eye of the tiger, man.
He is the man.
When I speak to Bradley Wiggins he appears to acknowledge this.
‘When we go to the Tour and the form guide says Chris is the man, I will be supporting Chris, we’re in a team and that’s why we’re successful.’
First though, a brief reminder of some things which happened on the 2012 Tour de France – the race which turned Bradley Wiggins from sideburned mod into knight of the realm and national
institution. Froome was there for another stint of stoical servitude.
Stage Seven. The climb into La Planche des Belles Filles. Tough. Tough. Tough. The gradient goes from 14 per cent to 22 per cent. And you’ve had a long day. Richie Porte did his dog work
and when he handed over to Froome only Wiggins, Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe remained in contention. And Froome.
Froome injected some pace into the business. Evans went with a kilometre to go but he had miscalculated. Froome, Wiggins and Nibali trailed after him like the tail on a kite. With 100m to go the
stage was anybody’s, so Chris Froome decided to make it his. He nipped around Nibali for his first ever stage win. Wiggins finished a couple of seconds behind Evans. All were happy.
‘Now he has got his stage and he is going to be an integral part of me winning this race,’ said Wiggins, his presumption barely masking the fear that Froome wouldn’t be
satisfied with one stage win.
So to Stage Eleven. 148km to La Toussuire. All was looking well heading into the first real mountaintop finish. Wiggins in yellow.
It is said that at a team meeting that morning, Froome had inquired if he had permission to attack from 3km out. That, he was told, would depend on Bradley. Froome’s eagerness was fed, not
just by his natural competitiveness, but by a puncture on the first day of racing which had cost him 1'25". He felt he could do his work for Wiggins and get a podium finish for himself, but only if
he was allowed to retrieve the time lost by puncturing.
Circumstances were different from La Vuelta, as by now Wiggins had two minutes on Froome, but letting Froome jump early could mean that Nibali and Evans would tag along with him eating into
Wiggins’s lead as he went. Whatever, nothing would be allowed to damage the team’s pursuit of the Tour’s yellow jersey.
An attack from that far out? It’s unlikely, Froome was told, but maybe in the last 500m. As it happened, Evans launched a madcap attack with 56km to go but got burned on the Croix de Fer,
the second savage
hors catégorie
climb of the day.
The last climb of the day is La Toussuire, 18km of torture. Richie Porte takes his turn at the front. The peloton
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