The Yellow Jersey’s coming home.. to MY house
FROOME RAINS ON FRENCH PARADE BY VOWING TO INFLICT 33 YEARS OF HURT
CHRIS FROOME responded to France’s World Cup winners singing ‘Football’s Coming Home’ by warning he will take the Yellow Jersey back to Blighty again.
As a bleary-eyed nation welcomed its heroes (top), there was less Gallic crowing about ending 33 years of hurt in their cycling showpiece.
Team Sky have carried off the Yellow Jersey all France desires in five of the last six years.
And Froome, responsible for four of them, is ready to hoist the Union flag above the Champs Elysees again.
When Mirror Sport asked Froome if cycling was coming home again, he laughed: “Ha, that’s one way of looking at it – but yeah, why not? It would just be incredible for us if we could win the Tour again. Absolutely amazing.
“If anything, I’d say we are even stronger with the experience and being in this position, the knowledge of how to ride under pressure.
“We’ve got such a capable group of guys and such a good team around us and we’re really going to be coming into our own when we move into the mountains.”
As the race swings into the Alps today, Team Sky are in the enviable position of having two riders in the top eight – Froome (above) and Geraint Thomas.
Britain’s first winner of Le Tour, Sir Bradley Wiggins, believes Team Sky will have a “real problem on their hands” if Thomas, 43 seconds off current leader Greg van Avermaet and almost a minute ahead of teammate Froome, moves into the fabled maillot jaune on Le Grand-Bornand.
Wiggo warned Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford would be “in the ears” of both riders, telling them they could win the Tour.
Mischievously, Wiggins called Brailsford’s influence “divisive” and added: “He’s quite self-serving. For him, it’s about the team winning. Both riders have got this joint leadership role, but that’s dangerous.”
Froome (right, in Yellow Jersey last year) and Thomas, his loyal wingman on each of the defending champion’s four triumphs, disagreed.
In 2012, Froome and Wiggins fell out over who carried Sky’s torch into the mountains and the former said: “I’m feeling great, right where I wanted to be – apart from that crash and losing time on that first stage – but the race itself, as always, will decide how it plays out.
“Geraint is riding extremely well and it puts us in an even better place. It’s different to 2012.”
After a rest-day ride up into the mountains above Chambery. Thomas said: “I’ve ridden with Froomey for a number of years.
“We get on well and there will be a natural selection anyway.”