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Chris Froome leaving Team Ineos to join Israel Start Up Nation from next season

Much-rumoured move finally confirmed, but will four-time yellow jersey winner race this year's Tour de France with Team Ineos?...

Chris Froome will join Israel Start Up Nation for the 2021 season and aims to end his career with the UCI WorldTour Team as his hugely successful 11-year spell with Team Ineos comes to an end with his contract expiring at the end of the year.

The news puts an end to months of rumours over the four-time Tour de France champion’s future, but he aims to ride this year’s race with Team Ineos rather than making a mid-season switch. One question that confirmation of his departure prompts, however, is whether he will now make his current team’s line-up for the race.

“Chris’s current contract comes to an end in December and we have taken the decision now not to renew it,” said team principal Sir Dave Brailsford in a statement released by Team Ineos at 10am BST today.

“We are making this announcement earlier than would usually be the case to put an end to recent speculation and allow the Team to focus on the season ahead,” he added.

In the statement, Froome said: “I look forward to exciting new challenges as I move into the next phase of my career but in the meantime my focus is on winning a fifth Tour de France with Team Ineos.”

Precisely one hour after the Team Ineos statement, Israel Start Up Nation confirmed that it had signed him as team leader for 2021 onwards, the announcement causing its website to crash.

Implications for Froome riding this year's Tour de France

Team Sky, and since its change of ownership and sponsorship last year, Team Ineos, has dominated the Tour de France over the past decade.

Since Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner of the race in 2012, six more victories have followed, four of them through Froome, followed by Geraint Thomas in 2018 and Egan Bernal last year.

The Colombian has made no secret of his desire to retain his title and with Thomas also a near-certainty in the line-up, confirmation of Froome’s departure, coupled with his ambition to win the race for a record-equalling fifth time, creates the risk of disrupting the team’s unity should he be in the squad.

There had been speculation in recent months that he might move from Team Ineos before the Tour de France, with the postponed start date of 29 August coming after the two-week window from 1 August within which riders are permitted to switch teams during the year.

That is conditional, however, on all parties being in agreement, and the language used in both the Team Ineos and the Israel Start Up Nation announcements today, suggests that no mid-season move will happen.

With his current contract expiring at the end of the year, Team Ineos would have long accepted that its riders would be likely to face Froome as an opponent at the 2022 Tour de France.

There is no incentive though for the team to let him go before the end of the season, however, given that in top form he would represent one of the leading threats to their own ambitions for the overall victory.

So, as much as Israel Start Up might have wished to recruit him before the delayed Tour de France, that looks to be off the table – and, we wouldn’t be too surprised if in this strangest of seasons that is being squeezed into three short months or so, Froome ends up riding the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta instead.

Froome’s only race since his horrific crash at the Criterium du Dauphiné last year came in February at the UAE Tour, cut short after cases of coronavirus were diagnosed among riders and staff at the event.

He turned 35 in May, and if he won this year’s Tour de France would be the second-oldest winner in the race’s 107 editions and the oldest in 98 years.

Only Belgian rider, Firmin Lambot, who was 36 years 180 days when he took his second overall victory in 1922, has won the race at an older age than Froome is now.

He joined Team Sky from Barloworld when it was set up in late 2009, as did Geraint Thomas.

His Grand Tour breakthrough came at the 2011 Vuelta where he finished second to Juan Jose Cobo, and he would eventually be awarded the overall victory last year when the Spaniard was stripped of his title for doping.

Finishing second to team-mate Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France, Froome won the 100th edition 12 months later and, after crashing out 12 months later, claimed three further victories between 2015 and 2017.

He followed that last Tour de France victory up by winning the Vuelta that same season, and in May 2018 won the Giro d’Italia to join Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to have held all three Grand Tour titles simultaneously.

Reaction

Chris Froome

I’m really excited to be joining the ISN family. I look forward to challenging and being challenged by their talent and continuing to strive for the success that I’ve enjoyed up to now. ISN’s impact on the sport is rapidly expanding, and I’m energised to be along for the ride. I feel we can achieve great things together.

Sir Dave Brailsford, team principal at Team Ineos

Chris has been with us from the start. He is a great champion and we have shared many memorable moments over the years but I do believe this is the right decision for the Team and for Chris.

Given his achievements in the sport, Chris is understandably keen to have sole team leadership in the next chapter of his career – which is not something we are able to guarantee him at this point. A move away from Team Ineos can give him that certainty.

At the same time, it will also give other members of our team the leadership opportunities they too have earned and are rightly seeking.

I am excited about the talent we have right across the team at the current time and all our collective focus is on preparing for the season ahead. Like everyone across the sport we are all looking forward to the start of racing next month.

Sylvan Adams, co-owner of Israel Start Up Nation

This is an historic moment for ISN, Israel, Israeli sports, our many fans all around the world and, of course, for me personally – a moment of enormous pride.

Chris is the best rider of his generation and will lead our Tour de France and Grand Tour squad. We hope to make history together as Chris pursues further Tour de France and Grand Tour victories, achievements that would make a serious case for Chris to be considered the greatest cyclist of all time.

We are committed to building a supportive Grand Tour team around Chris, such that we can make history together, as we compete to be the best, and achieve our principal goal: winning the Tour de France.

I am proud of the road we have travelled, which includes hosting the historic 2018 Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza in Israel, nurturing young Israeli talents, and inspiring a new generation of riders in Israel to take up the sport.

With Chris, we will move to new heights at the very top of the sport. I wish to add that I admire Chris not only for his success as a cyclist, but also for how he conducts himself, as a true gentleman, off the bike. Chris will be a great role model for our team.

Kjell Carlstrom, team manager of Israel Start Up Nation

We have been looking to strengthen the team for 2021 in several ways, not least of which is to become Grand Tour contenders.

With his impressive palmarès, Chris Froome is the perfect leader to mark our arrival as a serious contender for these races, particularly the Tour de France.

Chris’ career has been extraordinary, and we believe that he has both the mindset and physical talents to win more Grand Tours with us, while also acting as a mentor to our young talents, helping them succeed.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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12 comments

Avatar
julesselmes | 3 years ago
4 likes

I will no longer follow or support Chris Froome. I think it is terrible that someone who has lived in a country that suffered Apartheid is now riding for a team that represents another country with uses Apartheid. ("Apartheid"  is a system of institutionalised racial segregation; systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.) The Palestinians are poorly treated by the Israelis. The world rightly boycotted South African goods in the late '70s & early '80s but the world just accepts what Isreal is doing to the indigenous Palestinians. Please don't support this vulgar use of sport to promote a country that has shocking human rights issues.

Avatar
Maquis-Mark replied to julesselmes | 3 years ago
2 likes
julesselmes wrote:

I will no longer follow or support Chris Froome. I think it is terrible that someone who has lived in a country that suffered Apartheid is now riding for a team that represents another country with uses Apartheid. ("Apartheid"  is a system of institutionalised racial segregation; systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.) The Palestinians are poorly treated by the Israelis. The world rightly boycotted South African goods in the late '70s & early '80s but the world just accepts what Isreal is doing to the indigenous Palestinians. Please don't support this vulgar use of sport to promote a country that has shocking human rights issues.

I stand with you👍

Avatar
ErnieC replied to julesselmes | 3 years ago
0 likes

Unfortunately there are not many countries who do not have a history of human rights violations.

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Crazyhorse | 3 years ago
4 likes

A good move from Froome? Maybe - but he obviously could not care less about the continued illegal occupation of Palestine, and the planned imminent illegal annexation of the West Bank.

Pro-level cycling much like other elite sports has never been overly 'fussy' about where the money is coming from (Astana?), but he will not be getting my support...

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psychle replied to Crazyhorse | 3 years ago
1 like

Ditto that!

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RobD | 3 years ago
0 likes

I'd like to see Froome do well at one more tdf, not least to prove to all those who say he only managed it because of the Sky train 'dragging' him round the course. I guess most of the estalished GT teams already have a fair number of leaders, makes sense for him to go somewhere else, if they can provide him with enough support, which given their ambition, and a few choice signings could be the case.

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Judge dreadful | 3 years ago
1 like

I think It's a good move from Froome. He was never again going to be allowed to dictate things at intravenous, so now he can get on with building a team around him.

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handlebarcam | 3 years ago
1 like

Good for him. It is good to change things up. The only great champion in the modern professional era I can think of who stayed at one team their entire career was Miguel Indurain, and that may have contributed to his losing interest as soon as the wins became slightly more difficult.

There are questionable incidents in Froome's past, like almost every pro rider, but I find it very hard to dislike someone who ran in cleats up Mont Ventoux when his bike was broken by silly crowds. I have no idea what the Israel Start-Up Nation team's ethics are, whether any unrepentant ex-dopers are involved in the management, or where its money comes from. Something to read up on. It may just have been the biggest pay cheque on offer, or maybe he wants to be part of a similar project to what Team Sky was in the early years.

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Welsh boy replied to handlebarcam | 3 years ago
1 like

I saw quite a compelling article recently which suggested that Indurain gave up when he was having a hard time staying with the first wave of riders using EPO and he refused to join them in using it.  Having said that, I always wondered how such a big chap could give the little climbers a hard time in the mountains.

Anyway, back to Froome.  I really hope he wins one more Tour, it is going to be fun watching him and Bernal slugging it out (after Thomas has crashed and lost any hope of Ineos really treating him as a "joint leader").  Bring on 2012.

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Dnnnnnn replied to Welsh boy | 3 years ago
1 like

Welsh boy wrote:

I saw quite a compelling article recently which suggested that Indurain gave up when he was having a hard time staying with the first wave of riders using EPO and he refused to join them in using it. 

Be interested to read that if you can find it!

Guessing you didn't mean "2012"... although it might be quite nice to go back...

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Welsh boy replied to Dnnnnnn | 3 years ago
0 likes

Well spotted, I meant 2021 and I will see if I can find that article about Indurain for you 

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Dnnnnnn replied to Welsh boy | 3 years ago
0 likes

Welsh boy wrote:

I will see if I can find that article about Indurain for you 

Thank you.

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