Chris Froome to target 7 tour de france titles

[thom]

I'm a big fan of Froome - he should end up with a better Grand Tour palmares than Wiggins by the end of his career. Despite his perceived awkwardness, everyone will love him in the UK if he wins the tour this year. To me it seems rather normal to say he wants to focus on the tour for the lion's part of his career - it is after all the world's biggest annual sporting event.

Incidentally, Rouleur's latest edition has a Ned Boulting interview with Froome where he does talk about La Toussuire. He says:
1) His yo-yoing was a deliberate bluff as to being knackered, trying to get his opponent (i.e. Nibali) to attack and tire
2) When Nibali did attack, he was then able to bring Wiggins back to Nibali when Wiggins had been separated
3) He deliberately attacked thereafter with the belief that he was leaving Wiggins on Nibali's wheel with a safe run to the line
4) When Wiggins was them gapped, he was forced to drop back to look after Wiggins

It begs the question, what might have happened if Wiggins had held Nibali's wheel of his own accord...? Would Froome have been allowed to push on ?

Woof woof !

 

[smutchin]

If a GC rider states he is "targeting" something it usually means he "aims to win" not that he'll turn up and ride it.

Well, yeah, that's the drive and ambition that makes them a GC rider in the first place.

The rest of us know we can't expect to win everything but that's not the way the mind of the professional sportsperson works.

 

[e-rider]

He is a young, talented roider who produces some entertaining moments when he has a go. He adds to the spectacle.

As yet, he hasn't won a GT, but a couple of podiums look good and he's having a very strong build-up to the TdF.

We notice him more in part because he's racing on a British licence and has fairly good grounds (a passport and a parent) to claim that connection.

He does look a strong 'un and it seems reasonable that he should state he intends to have a good go at the Tour for the next few years.

But... he has yet to win a GT. They are long races and funny stuff does happen. Lance Armstrong (for all his alleged naughtiness) did rather build up the impression that once a top rider has aimed at the Tour, he'll win it. There are so many variables that this can be an unhelpful view.

Froome will need to be careful with what he ingests and what he uses in recovery (and so will his doctors). If he chooses to go into slightly naughty territory, it will have to be with very small doses and very strict and disciplined monitoring by a top physician. He'll have to avoid punctures and mechanical failure in places where the cars can't reach him quickly; he'll have to avoid crashing and stay away from danger when it's wet or in bunches. He'll have to be quick, too. But he's already shown that he is.

He has a fairly monstrous team around him and a team structure who now know how to win a GT. I wish him well and would not be at all surprised if he ended his career with one or two TdF victories, or maybe the full set of GTs.

he would have 2 GT wins under his belt if it wasn't for Sky team orders

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Which is 5.

Nah, there was another bloke, forget the name, an American I think. He was even on Oprah once.

 

[The Couch]

Nah, there was another bloke, forget the name, an American I think. He was even on Oprah once.

No, Tom Cruise never won the Tour, let alone more than 5

 

[Boris Bajic]

he would have 2 GT wins under his belt if it wasn't for Sky team orders

Arsenal would have won the Champions League had it not been for another team.

Kevin Schwantz would have won more World Titles if he'd been on a Yamaha or a Honda and if Lawson and Rainey hadn't existed.

The bloke in Scooby Doo would have got away with it, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

Teams require their domestiques to play a supporting role. That was his job and he signed the contract.

As things stand, he hasn't won a GT. Cycling is like that....

 

[Noodley]

I would have won all the GTs and Classics if it wasn't for my lardy fat arse. Damn you, lardy fat arse.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

No, Tom Cruise never won the Tour, let alone more than 5

You're right, even six times really would be Mission Impossible and whilst there were a Few Good Men around at one time or another in the peloton, beyond six tour wins, you'd truly have be Top Gun... and not just relying on namby-pamby marginal gains and sports scientology...

 

[Hont]

Felt like this was a bit of a non-story really. I felt he was just saying that he sees the peak of his career being 6-7 more years long and he wants to focus on the Tour for those years. That's his goal. Doesn't mean he's going to even compete in 6-7 more Tours, let alone win them.

Read like that, it's hardly a surprising statement. If he said he wanted to focus on Paris Roubaix on the other hand...

 

[Noodley]

Anyone know what his girlfriend thinks about it all, or what shaped chainrings he's thinking of using? - them's the REAL news stories.

 

[smutchin]

he would have 2 GT wins under his belt if it wasn't for Sky team orders

If not for his illness, he might have had a chance to step up and become team leader when Brad crashed out in 2011. But that's the way it goes. You can't make assumptions about what might have happened if circumstances had been different, precisely because circumstances would have been different. Butterfly effect, or something.

Greg Lemond might have won at least three more TdFs if not for a) Hinault, and b) being shot, but history will always show him to have won three and no more.

He's still the greatest in my eyes.

 

[smutchin]

If it hadn't been for Mark Cavendish/Andre Greipel/John Degenkolb/Peter Sagan/EBH/Tyler Farrar/Nacer Bouhanni/Arnaud Démare/etc, Matt Goss would probably still have contrived a way to come second.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

He is a young, talented roider

Freudian slip?

 

[e-rider]

Arsenal would have won the Champions League had it not been for another team.

Kevin Schwantz would have won more World Titles if he'd been on a Yamaha or a Honda and if Lawson and Rainey hadn't existed.

The bloke in Scooby Doo would have got away with it, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

Teams require their domestiques to play a supporting role. That was his job and he signed the contract.

As things stand, he hasn't won a GT. Cycling is like that....

I know that, my point was in response to someone doubting his ability to be good enough to win a GT - and my point is, that he has been the best rider in a GT twice, only his team manager got in the way, not other riders, not his bike, not a mechanical fault, not bad luck, not the weather, just the team manager.

 

[Rob3rt]

Ultimately, he did not win, so no-one knows if he could have!