Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE SPAIN BARRIER
Froome fears a diluted Ineos farewell
CHRIS FROOME admits his last stand as king of Britain’s blazing saddles on the road could be in the supporting cast instead of topping the bill.
The greatest Grand Tour rider of his generation makes his final appearance in the colours of Ineos Grenadiers ( formerly Team Sky) when the Vuelta a Espana begins in Irun today.
And Froome, who joins Israel Start-up Nation next season, hinted he may be riding as a super-domestique for t eam-mat e Richard Carapaz.
He said: “It’s a bag of mixed e mo t i o n s . I’ m looking forward to finishing my time at Ineos on a high note.
“We’ve got a great team here to support Richard as much as possible.”
It is 16 months since Froome’s life-threatening crash at the Criterium du Dauphine left him in intensive care with multiple broken bones rearranged like the skittles on a tenpin bowling alley.
Against the odds, he set his heart on a record-equalling fifth Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France this year, only to miss out on his primary target when Ineos principal
Sir Dave Brailsford left him out of the squad because he had yet to regain full throttle. Although Brailsford indicated i n Au g u s t the team would be all-in behind Froome at the Vuelta, the selection of 2019 Giro d ’Italia champion
Carapaz looks suspiciously like a v iable Plan B.
W i th Froome, 35, admitting he is still unsure of his form, he could be assigned to support Carapaz if the Vuelta’s early stages reveal revea a deficit of s stage-race fitn ness. It would be an anti-climax if a seventimes Grand Tour winner bowed out, after 11 seasons as Brailsford’s kingpin, hidden in the peloton as an extra, but he shrugged: “The signs in training have been better and better and I’m feeling more like my old self again, which is fantastic, but it’s hard to quantify that.
“I haven’t been able to race and see where I’m at against my rivals.
“I’m going to take the first few days to see where I’m at and then be able to have a clear plan for the rest of the race. I’m feeling better on the bike and that gives me a lot of confidence.
“But I ’ve got to keep in mind I haven’t raced a Grand Tour for two years since the 2018 Tour de France. I ’ ll know pretty quickly where I stand – the first few days of this Vuelta are pretty full-on.”