‘Olympic race a big gamble’
second and first in the 2016 Tour’s two individually timed stages.
Following Dutch pre-Rio favourite Tom Dumoulin’s crash in the Tour, in which he broke his wrist, the 31-year-old Briton’s chances of gold in the very hilly Olympic 59.6km race against the clock are considered high.
But Froome warned: “The Olympic road-race will be more of a gamble than the Tour, it being a one-day event and having such small teams of only five rides per nation.
“For the biggest nations, it’s going to be an extremely hard event to control. It’s not as if we’re going to put eight guys on the front. We’ll just have to make it selective as possible.”
Froome’s caution is logical after the 2012 Games, where Britain started the road race as stand-out favourites with Mark Cavendish – and were soundly defeated.
He included a tribute to the people of Nice in his winner’s speech. “This Tour has taken place against the backdrop of the terrible events in Nice and we pay our respects once again to those who lost their lives.
“Of course these events put sport into perspective but they also show why the values of sport are so important to free society,” said Froome.
“We love the Tour de France because it’s unpredictable but we love it more for what stays the same – the passion of the fans for every nation, the beauty of the French countryside and the bonds of friendship created through sport. These things will never change.”
Froome will use next Sunday’s RideLondon Classic as a warm-up for Rio, a rare opportunity for the Tour champion to race in the UK in front of his home fanbase. FIVE STRAIGHT WINS:
Miguel Indurain
FIVE WINS OVER SIX OR MORE YEARS:
Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault
THREE WINS:
Chris Froome, Greg LeMond, Philippe Thys, Louison Bobet
AS HE powered into Paris yesterday, Chris Froome did more than just confirm his status as the greatest Tour de France rider of his generation. He put himself in place to wipe the sport of its greatest shame.
At 31, Froome is now a triple champion of cycling’s premier event and his run of success is so consistent that he could go on to become the first rider – after America’s drugs cheat Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles – to take six Tours.
“I’ve won three and the novelty isn’t wearing off,” said Froome, as he celebrated this momentous success. “I will keep coming back for the next five or six years and give it my best shot.”
Froome is there after once more taking his body to an extraordinary level during the past three weeks.
Tour titles in 2013, 2015 and now make him just the eighth rider to win three in its 113-year-history.
He is also the first with back-toback triumphs since Spain’s Miguel Indurain established the all-time Tour record of five straight wins in 1995.
Only two other riders currently racing have won the Tour, Alberto Contador twice, in 2007 and 2009, and Vincenzo Nibali in 2014, Froome is ready for more.
Yet it is an indication of just how far British cycling has progressed in the last decade that the jury remains out on whether Froome’s latest triumph makes him the UK’s greatest bike rider because there are now so many candidates.
Sir Bradley Wiggins has racked up Olympic and World Championships gold medals in both track and road and captured the Hour Record, as well as breaking a century-long glass ceiling when he won Britain’s first Tour de France in 2012.
And Mark Cavendish is unquestionably the sport’s greatest-ever sprinter – and added but another four Tour stages and his first spell in yellow in this year’s Tour.
Then there is multiple Olympic track gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and all-time women’s cycling star Nicole Cooke, who are arguably equally strong contenders.
Being forced to run up Mont Ventoux mid-Tour when his bike was wrecked and he fell in a crash proved, said Froome, how hungry he was for another victory in the Tour.
“If anything it shows my will to win, how badly I wanted it,” he said.
“Even though I’ve won two Tours that doesn’t change anything for me, that doesn’t make me