FOUR MIDABLE
Froome feels the love as he triumphs again and is chasing even more wins
IT has taken four Tour de France wins, leaving him within striking distance of the all-time legends, for Chris Froome to be loved at home and abroad.
By the roadside in France they used to throw cups of urine and spit at him but now Froome has earned the grudging respect, if not outright admiration, of the people he denies a homegrown champion.
And in Britain perhaps we are waking up to the greatness Froome is unfurling before our eyes. Until now he may have been curiously unloved but after winning four Yellow Jerseys in five years he will soon have as many of them as Brazil’s iconic football team.
Rolling into the Paris sunset here last night Froome revealed he intends to keep chasing the fabled maillot jaune for another five years.
It will take something special to deny him joining Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain and Bernard Hinault on five wins in the most gruelling assault course on the sporting calendar.
Over the last three weeks and 2199 miles, Froome barely put a pedal wrong. Only when the tank was empty, in a 400-yard ramp finish on a Pyrenees altiport and he lost the Yellow Jersey for 48 hours to Fabio Aru, did he look fallible.
Now he deserves to win the biggest challenge of all – receiving the acclaim he is due.
Froome is dominating Le Tour in the way Tiger Woods used to rule the fairways, Michael Schumacher once monopolised the champagne on Grand Prix podiums and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor was almost unbeatable at darts.
And after a year of horrid headlines in cycling about jiffy bags, tactical sick notes, bullying and missed drugs tests, his pure racing instincts have been a welcome antidote to scandal.
He said: “I’d still like to keep racing into my late 30s and to keep competing for the Yellow Jersey. I’d like to be here in five years trying to win it again but it doesn’t get any easier.
“I hope people take me for what they see. I think they’ve come to know me a lot better over the last few years and the French public has certainly turned.
“I’ve had an amazing reception on the roads this time. It certainly hasn’t always been like that but as people have got to know me as a person, and not just as a bike rider, the trust has improved.
“Do I get the same sense of support from the British public? Yes I do, if all the messages I’ve been seeing on social media and the number of Union Jacks out on the road are anything to go by. The support has been amazing.
“There is something magical about the Champs-Elysees when you have spent three weeks thinking about being here in this moment.
“Each time I’ve won has been so unique, such a different battle to get to this moment. They are all so special but this will be remembered as the closest and most hard-fought battle.”
I’d like to be here in five years trying to win it again but it doesn’t get any easier CHRIS FROOME