How's Froome doing, who dropped back again today? It's hard to tell if this fixation on a fifth Tour is just in his head. the only way to keep the tension high or get attention that he once had to push back. The recovery is proceeding slowly, perhaps too slowly. The Vuelta served to get the machine moving again, but the hard work done in California throughout the winter suggests that recovery was not yet completeAnd while the benefit of the doubt should be given to any great athlete who has suffered such an injury, the decision to risk everything in France without seeking even the slightest confirmation first is starting to seem too bold. The Froome of the good old days never let an opportunity pass to test yourself.
Chris is not the type to give in to fear or show it. And it's understandable, given that the Israel Start Up Nation he took it with the dream of doing well in France, which It would be at least unwise to get out of this by admitting one's own discomfortWhat we can do then is read his words from the last few weeks, trying to grasp his state of mind.
On fear
It's a feeling, he says, that dates back only to the early days, when he struggled to comprehend the extent of the injury.
“There were definitely some moments,” he said during the UAE Tour, “especially when I had more difficulty breathing and it was explained to me that I had internal injuries, some fractured vertebrae, a fractured sternum, a collapsed lung. So it was a serious thingI was completely in the hands of the first responders, almost as if I was a spectator watching from afar. So it was a rather frightening and helpless feeling, knowing that my life depended on the people who worked around me."
On pain
He says that things have improved a lot and that the after-effects of the injury are now all behind him.
«I'm not suffering anymore – he said – I feel a little bit of discomfort when I sleep on my right side and a bit of burning where I had inserted a plateAll the gym work and rehabilitation I've done and am still doing translates into power on the bike. The two legs are now equal againGetting back on the bike was quite easy because the crash wasn't due to a mistake that would have questioned my ability. I was on a perfectly straight road and a gust of wind moved my front wheel while I had only one hand on the handlebars.
About the past
If it hadn't been for the accident at the Dauphiné in 2019, Froome would never have left Team IneosAnd who knows if the same team, convinced at that moment that Bernal was the (obvious) winner of the next Tours, would have let him go, realizing that the Colombian's path was becoming more arduous.
«Ineos “He has been winning Grand Tours for years,” he said, deliberately omitting to specify that out of 11 victories, 7 are his. “This team (Istrae Start Up Nation, ed.) is something new and fresh and it’s exactly what I needed. I had never been involved in the rider and staff recruitment process before.I've never been involved in the planning. Ineos has people who take care of that. Now that I'm part of that process for the first time, it feels like I have even more control over my role."
About Catalonia
Hands up and no proclamations, though he handles everything with Olympian calm. But time is running out, July is approaching: what's going on in your head? He talks about an ongoing process, a series of events that, if placed in the right sequence, will give him the strength to go to the Tour.
«But it is It's impossible to say when I'll finally be at the top – he explained in recent days – because the 2020 race ban took away a lot of my work space. Every year that passes when you're already 35 slows down your body. Careers are getting longer, mainly thanks to nutrition and physiology applied to sports. Everything is evolving. We are learning more and more about our bodies. But I knew and still know that To get back to the Froome of before, there will still be a lot of walking to doWill I be ready for the Tour? I'd like to be, and to do that I have to trust the work we've put in place."
It's not just the team that has changed, not just the bike. It is his life that has undergone a real revolution and in it Froome is trying to recreate the ideal environment in which to practice his profession. Like Viviani, who last year tried to bring the experience of the Quick Step train to Cofidis, so Froome is trying to recreate the Israeli team Sky. For now, the only certainty is curiosity to see the outcome of his work.
