I aim to be a Tour
Daily Express Monday July 27 2015 AS THE strains of the British National anthem wafted over the Champs Elysees yesterday evening, Chris Froome’s delight on the winner’s podium at becoming the fi rst Briton to take two Tours de France was plain to see.
But amid the celebrations, Froome made it clear that even though he had taken a fi nal victory in Paris once before, his second Tour still represents a major milestone. And he will not stop trying to win more, either.
“Winning it once was unbelievable,” said Froome, referring to his breakthrough victory in 2013.
“To come back to repeat that and to confi rm that last victory, to show that I’m no less hungry than before, hopefully it also shows my mind- set; that I’m not in this for the short term.
“I’m not just trying to get something out of the sport and then disappear.
“Even if for the next however many years, I’m only able to fi nish fi fth or sixth or whatever, I’m just so grateful I’ve been able to come back and to be able to win another Tour.” However, Froome admitted that he could only be sure of a second Tour victory after Saturday’s very last climb of the very last mountain stage, when he all but cracked after key rival Nairo Quintana attacked nine kilometres from the line.
As the lead he had built up on Quintana in three previous weeks of racing slowly but surely began to evaporate, the 30- year- old said that his second Tour victory had hung in the balance.
“There were defi nitely some moments that day when it was touch and go, especially once Quintana [ and Quintana’s team- mate Alejandro Valverde] had opened up that little gap,” said Froome. “It was quite a pivotal moment. If I’d tried to jump across on my own and they had accelerated and I was in no- man’s land, that could’ve been the Tour gone.”
“I couldn’t bear to watch it,” said Team boss Sir Dave Brailsford. “My head kept going. The logical part of my brain was going, ‘ fi gure it out, how much is he going to have to lose per km to lose the Tour’. But then I couldn’t watch.”
Froome had seemed well on track after a knockout blow to the opposition on stage 10 of the race at La PierreSaint- Martin. But then illness in the last week – “my rivals could hear me coughing on every climb” – and an increasingly strong Quintana risked playing havoc with Sky’s domination of the race.
“He’s had a chest infection, quite a serious one, but he’s coped with it admirably,” said Brailsford. “He’s battled on, not complained once about it, stayed positive. It’s as much a mental battle he’s won as a physical one.
“Mentally he’s a very, very robust individual.” In his weakened state, Sky team- mate Richie Porte’s support on Alpe d’Huez, Froome said, was vital as the Australian guided him up the climb.
“If I’d been left on my own when Quintana left, who knows how much time I’d have lost. He saved the day for me, quite literally” – and with that the Tour. In what many riders have said was the toughest Tour in recent years, Froome pointed out that unlike previous editions, there had been no ‘ transition’ stages whatsoever where the sprinters teams had taken control of the racing, giving the overall leaders an opportunity to ease back for a day or two. Rather, “every stage has been full on”.
He said: “Cav [ Mark Cavendish] rolled up to me one morning and said, ‘ this is nuts, I’ve never done a Tour this