What happen to Chris Froome in TDF?

[Arrowfoot]

I'd guess there could well be different interpretations of 'marginal gains'.

Oh yes

 

[GuyBoden]

Perhaps, a job on Sky Sports or ITV4 after this Start-Up-Nation's pension scheme team.

 

[cyberknight]

In 2016, I took a seat at a quiet corner of a packed airline lounge at Dubai Airport. The flight was delayed so it was a wait of 3 over hours. There was already a chap bent over his PC in the seat across the table. It was small coffee table with 2 opposing seats. I could comfortably reach out and touch him so it was a very close. The chap looked malnourished. Though he was wearing long sleeved sports top with the collar up I immediately noticed the boney hands, wrist and some portion of his forearm. He had a baseball cap shielding his eyes. His shoulder bones were holding his sports top and not his shoulders. I genuinely thought he was sick.

When he raised his head, I realised it was Chris Froome and he had already picked up 2 TDFs. I then realised he was heading to Melbourne for the Herald Sun Tour which he subsequently won. It was first race of the cycling season for him. I respected his privacy but sight of him in that condition stopped me from saying hi.

In the 3 hours, he did not consume food, just water. I was truly shocked by his body condition. It was skin and bones. I immediately surfed the web to see if there are any reports of he being sick. None. I did read how he dropped significant amount of weight for his first campaign much more than any fit cyclist of his height.

When it was reported that he won the Herald Sun Tour 2 weeks later, I surmised that he was bloody fit but wondered how he sustained himself.

Over the years It became obvious the famous Sky train was not only drafting they were his food on demand train. His body unlike others it seems did not have reserves and he needed to be fed repeatedly. Domestiques ferrying food is part and parcel of multi stage team cycling but the online chatter did indicate that the Sky's well oiled train did much more for Froome food wise. I recall in later years Richie Porte's comment about the Froome "food train" while riding the Tour down under.

The crash did damage him but when he lost the Sky/Ineos contract I did wonder if there are any other well oiled train to meet his demands. I don't think anyone despite the severity of the crash thought his performance would come to the level that we see now.

He is still the highest paid for this season but I wonder if Israel Start Nation, his team understood his needs like Sky did?

Sean Kelly has said similar about today's cyclists and injuries as they don't have the reserves to fight illness and injury

 

[Dogtrousers]

I am waiting for David Walsh's book on Brailsford. The only thing is I am not sure if Walsh knows he has to do one.

He's already written it. It was called "Inside Team Sky". It was a vomit-inducing grovel-fest. "I spent time with Team Sky, owned by my employers the Murdochs, and they are the bestest cleanest cycling team that ever there was. Take Fred the sock washer, for instance, he is 110% committed to clean socks in cycling ..." and so on until you cannot bear to read any more.

View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Team-Sky-David-Walsh/dp/1471133311

 

[Arrowfoot]

He's already written it. It was called "Inside Team Sky". It was a vomit-inducing grovel-fest. "I spent time with Team Sky, owned by my employers the Murdochs and they are the bestest ever cycling team that ever there was. Take Fred, the sock washer for instance, he is 110% committed to clean socks in cycling ..." and so on until you cannot bear to read any more.

I was hoping the one titled "Brailsford, the journey from Biarritz".

 

[T4tomo]

And I guess we thought the same Cavendish.

I think Froome has lost his willpower to win Either his fitness is off track or the ££££ in is bank account.

And his body would of took a hammering over the years also.

Bit of a difference in that Cav had a virus, which is now out of his system and to excel he needs to perform at his peak for relatively short periods of time.

Froome quite literally smashed parts of his body apart, to rebuild wasted muscle and regain peak fitness and deliver peak power over sustained mountain stages is a massive ask and one thats beyond him IMHO. The great Eddie Merckx didn't win a major race / tour over the age of 30. Big Mig won his last aged 31. In contrast Super Mario was bagging grand tour stage wins at the age of 36.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I was hoping the one titled "Brailsford, the journey from Biarritz".

I believe there was a section in "Inside Team Sky" that went into this. I quote: "Dave Brailsford has never been to Biarritz, has never even heard of David Millar and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. I'm sick and tired of time-wasting internet rumour-mongers with nothing better to do than cast aspersions on the great Team Sky (owned by my employers the Murdochs)."

 

[Arrowfoot]

I believe there was a section in "Inside Team Sky" that went into this. I quote: "Dave Brailsford has never been to Biarritz, has never even heard of David Millar and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. I'm sick and tired of time-wasting internet rumour-mongers with nothing better to do than cast aspersions on the great Team Sky (owned by my employers the Murdochs)."

Thats truly a laugh. Guess who is the CEO of Team Ineos?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Thats truly a laugh. Guess who is the CEO of Team Ineos?

Is it that chemicals-and-brexit bloke? I don't recall his name.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Is it that chemicals-and-brexit bloke? I don't recall his name.

Sorry, my mistake. I was referring to Francis Millar, sister of David Millar. She left last year and the post no longer exist. She was with Sky since inception

 

[matticus]

I believe there was a section in "Inside Team Sky" that went into this. I quote: "Dave Brailsford has never been to Biarritz, has never even heard of David Millar and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. I'm sick and tired of time-wasting internet rumour-mongers with nothing better to do than cast aspersions on the great Team Sky (owned by my employers the Murdochs)."

I PRESUME you're making this up (for comedic purpose), as there is a long section in Millar's book describing their shared experience!

 

[Arrowfoot]

I PRESUME you're making this up (for comedic purpose), as there is a long section in Millar's book describing their shared experience!

https://www.independent.ie/sport/ot...myself-in-the-mirror-brailsford-35081743.html

"I've been in a prison cell with Dave Millar (the retired pro who was arrested in 2004 on doping charges), in Biarritz, which was a harrowing experience," he said. "I've sat in prison, on my own, out of my wits with fear, being told I was complicit in (Millar's) cheating."

This after the infamous Russian Fancy Bears hacked the files

Dave Brailsford claimed yesterday that he did not know about the reputation of the drug triamcinolone, or its association with doping in cycling, when it was prescribed to Bradley Wiggins on three occasions in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I PRESUME you're making this up (for comedic purpose), as there is a long section in Millar's book describing their shared experience!

I was indeed making it up - but I was referring to Walsh's book, not Millar's.

To explain. Walsh wrote a book called "Inside Team Sky" the premise of which was that he had spent time with the team, looked under the beds and generally sleuthed around, and could attest that the team was absolutely clean, that all the staff from top to bottom were brilliant, clean and dedicated to cleanliness. No one had anything in their past that was at all unclean. With the slight exception of Geert Lienders, for whom he had some kind of explanation. He also dedicated an entire chapter to taking up the cudgels against anyone on the internet who suggested otherwise (not mentioning Ross Tucker by name).

Some commentators unkindly suggested that Walsh was a busted flush and that as an employee of the Murdoch organisation he had something of a conflict of interest.

It was possibly the worst book on sport that I've ever read, so transparently did it push its agenda. And I've read some terrible ones, as very many sporting books tend to be.

 

[Arrowfoot]

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/interview-david-walsh-on-inside-team-sky/

"Those were different times. Walsh’s most recent brush with embedding was a rather more divisive experience. "Yes, I've taken vastly more flak for this," he admits of his season behind the scenes at Sky, which he described in a series of articles for The Sunday Times and in his recently published book, Inside Team Sky.

Walsh's conclusion is that Sky does not have a doping culture and, in particular, that its leader, Chris Froome, is a credible Tour de France winner. "I'd rather say I believe Chris Froome is clean than say I believe Team Sky is clean, because that would preclude the possibility that one of their riders might be investigated for doping, which of course we know has happened to a degree with Jonathan Tiernan-Locke," he says."

 

[rogerzilla]

Sean Kelly has said similar about today's cyclists and injuries as they don't have the reserves to fight illness and injury

Stephen Roche said no-one will do the treble again because you need the weight to survive the cold stages of the Giro without getting ill, but then you're too heavy to be competitive in the TdF, which has become a climbers' race. Again, climbers with little T.rex arms don't make the best sprinters for the Worlds.