Froome faces slog to join Tour ‘gods’
CHRIS FROOME yesterday spoke of the “massive challenge” he will face to win a record-equalling fifth Tour de France after the unveiling of the ultra-difficult and unconventional 2018 route.
Next year’s 3,329km, three-week race includes a team time trial, five summit finishes, exposed coastal roads, huge mountain stages and even sections of dirt road.
And the most unusual day’s racing is stage 17’s nerve-wrackingly short but tough 65km trek through the Pyrenees, where one minor error could spell curtains for an overall contender such as Froome.
He believes the key to success will be the Tour’s tumultuous first week, starting in the windy Vendee region on July 7, heading into the hills of Brittany and culminating with a lengthy slog across the uneven, crash-inducing, cobbled backroads of north-eastern rural France.
“It’s going to be very dangerous even before we hit any of the big mountains. The wind could be a massive factor up in northern France, we could see the race get torn to pieces,” said Froome, who yesterday received the Velo d’Or award for the best rider of the year after his historic Tour-Vuelta double.
“It’s tough, especially the first eight or nine days, but I wouldn’t expect anything else from the Tour organisers.”
Fellow British contender Simon Yates, 25, the Bury rider who won the White Jersey for the Tour’s best young rider this year, said: “The first week will be decisive for the overall classification and that’s before we get to the mountains. I would prefer the climbs earlier.”
And Froome recognised that with such a difficult first week, the criteria for selecting his support riders in Team Sky would change.
“It’s definitely going to be a big consideration to have a team to keep me safe up north,” he said.
“But we don’t want to compromise the team for the second and third week in the Alps and the Pyrenees. In terms of selection, it would be guys who can be very versatile.” Next year all teams will be cut from nine to eight riders. In an event as arduous as the Tour, where team support is permanently stretched to nearbreaking point as a matter of course, even losing one rider will make it much tougher to control his rivals.
That could be particularly true on ascents as tough as stage 12 to Alpe d’Huez, where Froome almost lost the Tour to Colombian climber Nairo Quintana in 2015.
On the plus side for Froome, the team time trial, a discipline in which Sky have always shone, makes a return after a three-year absence.
As for Mark Cavendish, just four short of Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins, there are potentially eight opportunities for the British sprinter to make his mark, all bar two in the first fortnight.
The 2018 Tour represents defending champion Froome’s first chance to draw equal with the four riders who have won the general classification five times: Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Merckx.
They are all considered gods of the sport and, at 32, Froome’s first chance to join their ranks is likely to be his best.