Froome latest .
- Thread starter Adam4868
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nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
I hope he comes back only if he is 100% the cyclist he was before the accident. Sport is full of failed comebacks of greats which have tarnished their legacies. Say he enters the TdF and is found wanting. He'd have been better off not entering. For such driven individuals, accepting that it's time to retire and do something else is often the hardest decision of allThe truth doesn't really sell papers,he'll be back
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
When I wrecked my knee my wife came up with a good question to put to the specialist. "If I was an professional athlete, would this be the end of my career" (he did treat at least one household name sportsman). His answer was - "It depends on the sport but I'd say career threatening, not career ending."
So the fact that Froome is even trying says that the odds are fair that he'll get back to pro-level cycling. He'll have had the very best advice about whether that's possible. Whether he'll get back to the top of the pile ... who knows. I guess the chances of him getting back to dominant form post-crash are probably similar to Cav doing the same post mononucleosis. Not impossible but I have no real clue how likely. I won't be placing any bets.
So the fact that Froome is even trying says that the odds are fair that he'll get back to pro-level cycling. He'll have had the very best advice about whether that's possible. Whether he'll get back to the top of the pile ... who knows. I guess the chances of him getting back to dominant form post-crash are probably similar to Cav doing the same post mononucleosis. Not impossible but I have no real clue how likely. I won't be placing any bets.
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Adam4868
Legendary Member
You don't get to be "the best grand tour rider of all time" (purely my opinion !) without something special about you.Its difficult to say whether he can ever be 100% the same rider.But you can guarantee if he's hitting his numbers/targets he won't not try.Its not in him to be second best.Plus the peleton looks to be having a change of guard with the likes of Allaphilipe,Bernal,Pinot ect...well maybe not Pinot
Anyway I'm optimistic he'll return,even to confirm to himself whether he's done or not.Thats the thing about many of the top tier riders,they can take a hell of a lot of pain/suffering it goes with the sport.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Chris Horner
There was a report from Froome that was less than encouraging a couple of months back. He was going to enter some criterium or other but said that he still couldn't walk unaided and couldn't ride other than at "touring pace" All IIRC
Maybe he could take up audax?
Slick
Guru
Maybe not for Froome but I quite liked Andy Murray's take on things with his comeback. He noted that not everyone could be first, and if everyone only took part with a good chance winning then it would be a very small field. He reckoned he would be happy to get back competing in the sport he loves, which I kinda understood.
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Adam4868
Legendary Member
I learnt everything I know from Quincy ME.Call me a sceptic, but I'm beginning to wonder if all the medical experts on here actually finished their medical degrees...
KneesUp
Guru
But then there is Eddy Merckx, who was in pain for most of his career (and four of his TdF titles) after his crash in 1969. He used to carry an allen key when he raced so he could adjust his saddle on-the-go.
Merckx suffered bad concussion, cracked a vertebra low in his back and his pelvis shifted horribly. It should have been the end of his career but Merckx begged to differ.
"Cyclists live with pain, if you can't handle it you will win nothing," he told me earlier this week. "If you don't want to suffer, take up another sport. Winning big Tours and stage races is often about pain management. When the terrible accident occurred at least I escaped with my life. I was the lucky one, that was my reaction. I was positive and having worked so hard to succeed in cycling I was determined not to give up.
"I was only young and the injuries were to haunt me for the rest of my career but I got through. I had to adjust my position on the saddle and I was always needing massages and manipulation. But I got through. In the end I grew philosophical. I could still turn the pedals, the bike still went quick. Not as quick, but still very quick. The only difference between me and my opponents was that I started most races in pain, they hit the wall three-quarters through or at the top of a big climb."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/o...y-pain-was-never-a-barrier-for-fast-Eddy.html
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Call me a sceptic, but I wonder whether the actual medical expert I saw after my clotting episodes finished his medical degree... He told me that my survival and relatively good recovery was due to me being an 'elite athlete'!Call me a sceptic, but I'm beginning to wonder if all the medical experts on here actually finished their medical degrees...
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Don't they examine dead people? Just how ill is Froome?
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Adam4868
Legendary Member
Slick
Guru
He certainly looks quite happy for someone struggling to recover from injury. Good to see him back.
Never doubted it Colin, never doubted it.Call me a sceptic, but I wonder whether the actual medical expert I saw after my clotting episodes finished his medical degree... He told me that my survival and relatively good recovery was due to me being an 'elite athlete'!
