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news
Chris Froome (photo credit LaPresse).jpgChris Froome says he'll take the rest of the Giro d'Italia one day at a time
Chris Froome says he will take the Giro d’Italia one day at a time as he looks to make up a deficit of nearly two and a half minutes to race leader Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott during the remaining 12 stages.
Team Sky’s Froome lost more than a minute to his fellow Briton as Yates won Stage 9 of the race on the Gran Sasso yesterday and now lies in 11th place overall, 2 minutes 27 seconds behind Yates.
Today is the second rest day, with racing resuming tomorrow with the longest stage of the 101st edition of the Giro, covering 239 kilometres through hilly terrain from Penne to Gualdo Tadino.
That’s followed by two more hilly stages and a flatter day that provides a rare opportunity for the sprinters before the battle for the overall resumes in earnest, with five mountain stages and an individual time trial among the remaining eight days’ racing.
Tour de France and Vuelta champion Froome, currently trying to clear his name after returning an adverse analytical finding for elevated levels of the anti-asthma drug salbutamol during the Spanish race, had begun the Giroin Jerusalem with the aim of being just the third cyclist in history to win three consecutive Grand Tours.
However, a crash ahead of the opening time trial got his challenge off to a bad start. He hit the deck again on Saturday’s Stage 8, and was distanced by his main rivals in the final kilometres of the Gran Sasso yesterday, but in comments reported on the Team Sky website today he insisted that believes he will get stronger throughout the race.
“I always came into the Giro with the plan of building into the race, with the bigger goal of doing the Giro d’Italia and going on to the Tour de France,” the 32-year-old said.
“It was never my objective to arrive right at the beginning of the Giro absolutely firing on all cylinders because as we’ve seen in riders who’ve done that in the past, they reach July and just have nothing.
“I was always looking to build through this period, but I think the crash [in Jerusalem] was a setback to me. I also think the second crash [on Stage 8] didn’t help, also on my right side, but we’re here and that’s the nature of cycling.
“I’m here, soaking it up, and really enjoying racing here in Italy. It’s been tough but it’s been good bike racing.”
Turning to the performance of Yates, whose team mate Esteban Chavez lies second overall, he said: “Mitchelton-Scott are in such a commanding position and they’ve ridden such a good race so far.
“It’s great to see another Brit in the leader’s jersey. I’m genuinely happy for Simon. It’s a huge achievement, what he’s been able to do so far, and he seems to be coping really well under pressure.
“I’m going to be trying to give him a tough time in the second half of this race but nonetheless it’s great to see another Brit in pink. He’s got the team to support him, so he’s definitely going to take a lot of beating.”
Referring to his deficit to Yates, he continued: “It is a big gap, but we’ve got some extremely tough racing coming and we’ve got a long time trial as well. I wouldn’t say it’s likely at this point, but stranger things have happened.”
While that 34.2 kilometre time trial should on paper give a fully-fit Froome an opportunity to make up time on Yates, the Team Sky man is also currently 2 minutes 16 seconds behind the reigning world champion in the discipline – and 2017 Giro winner – Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb, who lies third overall.
“I’m going to take the race one day at a time,” Froome maintained. “I still want to do the best I can do: if that’s 20th place, if it’s second place, or if it’s first place. I’m here to race. I’m a bike racer and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Speaking about his current physical condition, he said: "Whenever you crash the body is going to take a bit of an impact and I’m not pedalling the same as I normally do. That’s something I hope today, the rest day, will compensate for a little bit. Hopefully I start feeling a little bit more like myself in the second part of the race.
“The team has been great. It looks different to how it would normally look if we were on the front with the leader’s jersey every day, it’s going to look different when we don’t have the leader’s jersey.
“I’m taking it day-by-day at this point,” he added. “I’m hoping to feel better and obviously if I am feeling better I’m going to take the race on the best I can.”
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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14 comments
So he's decided to take the race one day at a time. As that's how time works what was the alternative?
I've read a few cycling biographies and it's surprising there weren't more deaths back in the good old days, post WW2 onwards. People like Coppi may have been legendary but they were also drug fuelled and pushing the limits.
It's been mentioned before but watch Icarus and see what you think of drug testing aftewards.
So are we saying that an extra dose of salbutamol would turn thing around for him??? I don't think so.
I hope he does better on TUEsday.
His interview today was odd where he refused to answer whether he was still taking salbutamol and passing it off as "his business". Surely if he was a genuine asthma sufferer then he'd just say "yes, because I have a chronic medical condition"? Yet more muddying the waters, sadly.
There was once a time when I would have defended any Sky rider in the face of such suggestions in a forum, sadly no longer. (To those that are going to claim sagely, that they knew all along Dont bother telling me because YOU DID NOT KNOW you only suspected! THATS a fact)
I have had far too many dreams pissed on, and wasted far too much of my hard earned money travelling to support people who do not appear to give a shit about the spirit of the rules for me to give them either the benefit of the doubt, or a fuck any longer. As for Diamond Dave, like the riders concerned I like everyone else outside team Sky have no proof you were "at it" but I dont trust you anymore either.
I feel as though I had my pocket picked.
lol, cyclists at the top of the pile from all nations, all eras have been doping in one way or another and breaking the spirit of the sport. Sport is a BUSINESS and has been for a long long while, you need to get your head out of the sand.
What is your view on soccer, rugby, tennis, golf, athletics, swimming, table tennis, snooker, darts etc etc, how about the 'spirit' there, win at all costs, playing right up to the line?
You're telling me you don't know about the drugs in those sports, you telling me you don't know about specialist equipment that only the top players/nations can afford, swim suits that allow you to go quicker (until they were rightly banned), what about beta blockers for top golf pros, meldonium in tennis by all the big players (and ignored by WTA as unethical/not in the spirit) and still microdosed to this day. Remember Rusedski stating his drugs (nandrolone) were due to a trainer giving them to him in pills he normally took. Agassi failing a test after taking crystal meth and ATP covering it up, the list is endless of those hushed up and even bigger of the unethical goings on in all sports.
Soccer, rugby and athletics et al drug taking is still prevalent, soccer particularly gets a big pass because there's so much money involved, testing compared to cycling there is massively disparity. Talk about ethics, cheating, pushing the boundaries, you only need watch any game of soccer at any level, same in rugby.
Oh and whilst we're at it, what about the ethics of the biggest drug cheat in cycling ever, no, not Armstrong, Merckx, caught three times and DQ'd at big races in an era of virtually no testing, were your dreams pissed away then? What about Moser, yup, another druggie, and if you think that Hinault, Indurain and the rest through the 80s and 90s weren't unethical in pushing what was legitimate or just taking the piss, sorry but you're simply one eyed when it comes to the reality of what happens when money and fame is as at stake.
Amen.
Double post deleted. Christ, how shit is this forum software?
lol, cyclists at the top of the pile from all nations, all eras have been doping in one way or another and breaking the spirit of the sport. Sport is a BUSINESS and has been for a long long while, you need to get your head out of the sand.
What is your view on soccer, rugby, tennis, golf, athletics, swimming, table tennis, snooker, darts etc etc, how about the 'spirit' there, win at all costs, playing right up to the line?
You're telling me you don't know about the drugs in those sports, you telling me you don't know about specialist equipment that only the top players/nations can afford, swim suits that allow you to go quicker (until they were rightly banned), what about beta blockers for top golf pros, meldonium in tennis by all the big players (and ignored by WTA as unethical/not in the spirit) and still microdosed to this day. Remember Rusedski stating his drugs (nandrolone) were due to a trainer giving them to him in pills he normally took. Agassi failing a test after taking crystal meth and ATP covering it up, the list is endless of those hushed up and even bigger of the unethical goings on in all sports.
Soccer, rugby and athletics et al drug taking is still prevalent, soccer particularly gets a big pass because there's so much money involved, testing compared to cycling there is massively disparity. Talk about ethics, cheating, pushing the boundaries, you only need watch any game of soccer at any level, same in rugby.
Oh and whilst we're at it, what about the ethics of the biggest drug cheat in cycling ever, no, not Armstrong, Merckx, caught three times and DQ'd at big races in an era of virtually no testing, were your dreams pissed away then? What about Moser, yup, another druggie, and if you think that Hinault, Indurain and the rest through the 80s and 90s weren't unethical in pushing what was legitimate or just taking the piss, sorry but you're simply one eyed when it comes to the reality of what happens when money and fame is as at stake.
Well, precisely. They're all at it. Even Saint Mo Farah is looking a bit dodgy:
https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/ewan-mackenna-mo-farah-has-more-questions-to-answer-than-gold-medals-and-the-facts-are-stacking-up-against-him-36712511.html
I thought it funny that Contador was never the same after his doping ban, it also strikes me as odd that Froome’s form seems to have abandoned him since he has been under investigation.
Apart from the two Vuelta and two Giros, one of which he won just before his ban was initiated. Yeah, never the same.
Or maybe you could use your brain and look at Froome's past Giro performances, listen to what he says about how other riders struggle with back to back Tours, consider his accidents, consider that maybe his training has been as much to demonstrate why the AAF came rather than to peak for the Giro, maybe even the stress and scrutiny have had an impact.
Unless you think that the odd extra puff of an inhaler in ONE stage of many hundreds he's been tested at turns an also ran into a great champion?
He needs to see that doctor Nibali saw on his rest day in 2016.