Jersey’s coming home

FROOME RAINS ON FRENCH PARADE BY VOWING TO INFLICT 34 YEARS OF HURT

CHRIS FROOME responded to France’s World Cup winners singing Football’s Coming Home by warning he will take the Yellow Jersey back to Blighty again.

As a bleary-eyed nation welcomed its heroes, there was less Gallic crowing about ending 33 years of hurt in their cycling showpiece.

Team Sky have carried off the Yellow Jersey all France desires in five of the last six years.

And Froome, responsible for four of them, is ready to hoist the Union flag above the Champs Elysees again.

When Mirror Sport asked Froome, above, if cycling was coming home again, he laughed: “Ha, that’s one way of looking at it – but yeah, why not? It would just be incredible if we could win the Tour again. Absolutely amazing.

“If anything, I’d say we are even stronger with the experience and being in this position, the knowledge of how to ride under pressure.

“We’ve got such a capable group of guys and such a good team around us and we’re really going to be coming into our own when we move into the mountains.”

As the race swings into the Alps today, Team Sky are in the enviable position of having two riders in the top eight – Froome and Geraint Thomas.

Britain’s first winner of Le Tour, Sir Bradley Wiggins, believes Team Sky will have a “real problem on their hands” if Thomas, 43 seconds off current leader Greg van Avermaet and almost a minute ahead of team-mate Froome, moves into the fabled maillot jaune on Le Grand-bornand.

Wiggo warned Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford would be “in the ears” of both riders, telling them they could win the Tour.

Mischievously, Wiggins called Brailsford’s influence “divisive” and added: “He’s quite self-serving. For him, it’s about the team winning. Both riders have got this joint leadership role, but that’s dangerous.”