Froome quits Team Ineos after decade
SEVEN-TIME Grand Tour winner Chris Froome will leave Team Ineos at the end of the season to bring an end to a decade-long association with Sir Dave Brailsford’s team.
The four-time Tour de France winner is set to join the Israel Start-up Nation squad for next season after seeing his leadership role within what was Team Sky challenged by the emergence of both Geraint Thomas and the young Egan Bernal, who have won the past two editions of the Tour between them.
“Given his achievements in the sport, Chris is understandably keen to have sole team leadership in the next chapter of his career – which is not something we are able to guarantee him at this point,” Brailsford said.
“A move away from Team
Ineos can give him that certainty.”
Froome has fought his way back from career-threatening injuries suffered in a high-speed crash last summer, determined to win what would be a recordequalling fifth Tour title, but tensions over team leadership had led to weeks of speculation over his future and suggestions he could leave mid-season.
Instead, the 35-year-old will see out the campaign with Ineos and plans to be on the start-line of the re-arranged Tour, which is due to begin in Nice on August 29.
“It has been a phenomenal decade with the team, we have achieved so much together and I will always treasure the memories,” Froome said.
“I look forward to exciting new challenges as I move into the next phase of my career but in the meantime my focus is on winning a fifth Tour de France with Team Ineos.”
With Thomas and Bernal also due to be in the mix, there should be a fascinating battle for dominance within the team that has won seven out of the past eight Tours.
Froome joined Team Sky for their inaugural season in 2010, developing from a somewhat awkward domestique into the finest Grand Tour rider of his generation.
He was second on the podium when Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour in 2012, with many feeling he could have beaten Wiggins given the freedom to race his team-mate, and went on to take the top step himself in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, having crashed out in 2014.
Froome completed a Tourvuelta a Espana double in 2017, and then held all three Grand Tour titles at the same time when he followed up with a dramatic victory at the Giro d’italia in 2018.