THE BIG INTERVIEW
THE LONG CLIMB
CHRIS FROOME
It’s been more than two years since the crash that almost ended Chris Froome’s career, and he’s looked like a different rider since his return to racing last year. Yet he’s still the most successful grand tour rider in the peloton, and, as he tells Procycling, he’s not giving up yet on getting back to the top
Writer Sophie Hurcom
Portraits Ian Walton*
Cycling’s landscape couldn’t have changed more than in the two years since Chris Froome’s career-altering crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June 2019. Back then, Tadej Pogačcar was a neo pro a few months into his first season in the WorldTour, Primož Roglic was still frequently referred to as a former ski jumper, the Israel cycling team was a second-tier squad trying to secure wildcard race spots and Froome was one of the favourites to win a record-equalling fifth Tour de France that summer. Today, Froome remains the most successful grand tour rider in the peloton, but the rider who won seven titles between 2011 and 2018 isn’t the one that we’ve seen these last two years. There’s still no way of knowing for sure if he’ll ever be that rider again.
It was on June 12, 2019 when everything changed for Froome. In a split second, as he rode downhill and briefly took his hand off his bars while doing a course recon of the Dauphiné’s time trial in Roanne, he careered high speed into a wall. He fractured his right femur, his elbow and multiple ribs as well, as well as suffering internal injuries. He was initially bed and wheelchair bound, and had to relearn to walk.
Having once seemingly been unbeatable in grand tours, Froome’s results two years on read more like those of a domestique, tasked with carrying out their role before sitting up to save energy beforee the finish. While Pogacar, Roglic and Egan Bernal have become the grand tour riders to beat, Froome has been finishing in the gruppetto, often simply trying to survive to the line.
“It’s phenomenal. I almost feel as if the crash has taken me back to being a neo pro, in a very strange way, and I’m sort of trying to make it again and trying to get back to that top level again,” Froome tells Procycling over a Zoom call. “It’s almost as if I’m starting from the beginning and I’m trying to get up there. Which is, yeah… a position I never expected to be in at the age of 35.”
Lying in intensive care covered in plaster cast, days after the accident, Froome declared his intention to return to racing. In the months and weeks since, he’s repeated the same line, that he can and will get back.