Va Va Froome Briton completes historic double
Briton wins Vuelta to follow Tour triumph Sky rider grabs points jersey on final stage
And some people think he is too nice to be a sporting great. Chris Froome secured his place in history last night, becoming the first rider to win the Vuelta a Espana back-toback with the Tour de France as the race ended beneath a spectacular sunset in Madrid. And he did it in utterly ruthless fashion.
These final stages are meant to be ceremonial for the general-classification contenders. But Froome, increasingly, does not appear inclined to give anything away for free.
Not content with taking the red jersey for the overall race winner, and the white for best in the combined classification, Froome decided to contest the final bunch sprint on the Paseo del Prado, finishing 11th beneath the setting sun to wrap up the green points jersey, too.
Matteo Trentin, the Quickstep rider who won the stage – his fourth stage victory of the race – seemed genuinely shocked to be denied the jersey in such circumstances. “Chris told me he wanted to defend the green jersey and he did it,” the Italian said rather forlornly. “I won four stages so it’s kind of a joke not to win the green jersey but it’s like this.”
It’s like this. Froome may have the mild-mannered exterior of a work experience boy but inside he is quite ruthless. Not quite Eddy Merckx ruthless – the ‘Cannibal’ was so ravenous he helped himself to more than 500 race wins in his career and won 11 grand tours. But that is the sort of company Froome is now starting to keep.
This is his fifth grand tour, but it puts Froome in a new bracket in terms of his stature in the sport. It was his first outside of the Tour de France. It was a ‘double’ that no rider had ever managed before.
Froome actually almost set an unwanted record about half an hour before the end of the race, flirting with disaster as he contested an intermediate sprint with a few laps of the Paseo del Prado.
Maybe he was just a bit heady after the beer and champagne consumed on the way into Madrid, but it was another example of his willingness to contest everything. He is more of a racer than his detractors give him credit for.
“Of course it was a risk I might crash in a bunch sprint, but at the end of the day I’m a bike racer,” he said afterwards. “It was probably my only chance of winning a green jersey in my career. When I wake up tomorrow I wanted to be able to say that I tried at least.”
Not that it will change much. Froome was as polite as ever on the winner’s podium, saying all the right things – in both English and Spanish – and thanking the right people. But he knows his achievement has not made huge waves back in Britain. He no longer expects it to.
After missing out on a BBC Sports Personality nomination last year despite claiming his third Tour title in four years (as well as an Olympic bronze medal and second place in the Vuelta) Froome was asked after securing the Vuelta title atop the Alto de l’angliru on Saturday whether he thought he might get a look-in this year. “I’m not going to hold my breath,” he laughed.
We are in familiar territory here, of course. The ‘why is Froome not more popular than he is?’ debate.
‘Of course it was a risk I might crash in a bunch sprint, but at the end of the day I’m a bike racer’
Partly, of course, it has to do with Sky. The questions that remain over the unresolved UK Anti-doping investigation; the therapeutic use exemption saga; Sir Dave Brailsford’s clumsy attempts to make that story go away; the cynicism of a public already wearied from years of doping scandals. Partly it is his upbringing, the fact he was born and grew up in Africa, lives in Monaco and does not come back to Britain all that much.
But never mind the calls for BBC SPOTY awards or knighthoods. There is far too much made of that. Never mind Froome’s popularity. By any objective reckoning – in pure sporting terms, and assuming he is clean – he should surely be recognised by now as one of the greats, not simply of cycling but of British sport.
Where does he go from here? Not to next May’s Giro d’italia; that much seems certain. As much as Froome would like to do the socalled ‘Tiger Slam’ – to hold all three major titles at the same time – his priority is that fifth Tour de France crown. “I think a lot of it will depend on the routes,” he said, not entirely convincingly, when asked about next year’s Giro. “I’ll see what the organisers lay down for us before I make any decisions. I’m not writing it off…
“But at the same time, it is a risk. Because you are always going to be on that knife-edge physically [going for two grand tours back to back]. And I mean, to win a fifth Tour, that would be the golden prize for me.”
In other words, no Giro next year. And, one imagines, no Giro in 2019, either, given Froome will be hell-bent on getting the record outright and winning a sixth Tour if he wins a fifth.
These are all subjects for another day, though. For now, it is enough to appreciate what Froome has done this summer. Because there is a danger we are becoming blasé about his and Sky’s achievements.
The fact is he planned and executed this summer to perfection, arrived at the Tour de France, in his own words, under-cooked, but getting stronger as the race went on. He and his coach Tim Kerrison then sought out obscure roads near Chatel in the Haute-savoie to try to prepare for the 20 per cent-plus ramps he would find on Los Machucos and the Angliru.
“We had some very amusing sessions on what were basically goat tracks up the side of a mountain,” he said, smiling innocently. An increasingly ruthless assassin and a genuine sporting great.