Chris Froome tight-lipped over possible departure from Team Ineos
Chris Froome and Team Ineos remained tight-lipped on Thursday over speculation the four-times Tour de France winner may move to a rival team before this year’s race in order to ensure leadership status.
With his Team Ineos contract expiring at the end of the year, Froome was reported by cyclingnews.com to be “in discussions” over a mid-season transfer, possibly by early August. The Tour de France is scheduled to start in Nice on 29 August.
In a statement Froome hinted at possibly having won his last Grand Tour with a Dave Brailsford-run team by saying: “I am extremely confident I can return to Tour winning form. Which team that will be with, beyond 2020, I don’t know yet.”
Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, Tour champions in 2018 and 2019 respectively, have recently asserted their claims as the Ineos team’s Tour leaders while Froome, who missed last year’s Tour after a career-threatening crash, is also desperate to return to top form. He has not won a Grand Tour since the 2018 Giro d’Italia and has not won a major race for two years.
“I have no intention of retiring any time soon,” Froome said. “If anything, the crash has given me a renewed focus and drive. I have worked harder than I ever have to get back to where I am. I won’t let that be for nothing.”
Internal rivalries with fellow Grand Tour champions Thomas, Bernal and last year’s Giro winner Richard Carapaz have been brewing and cycling’s transfer market growing fraught as sponsors struggle to fend off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Froome, who will be 35 next week, may be seeking one last lucrative move before the market becomes even more pinched but may have few options. Leading the field for his signature will be Bahrain-McLaren run by the former Team Sky coach Rod Ellingworth and headed by former Sky riders Mark Cavendish, Mikel Landa and Wout Poels.
The Spanish Movistar team, having shed Landa, Carapaz and the Grand
Tour winner Nairo Quintana, are also in need of a rider capable of landing a Tour de France win and may have the estimated £4m a year it would take to secure Froome.
Most World Tour teams are dismissive of the possibility of signing Froome. “Our transfer activity is parked,” said one, while another added: “Who has millions lying around now?”
In late April Froome said that if he won a fifth Tour this summer it would be “massive”, and that it would be “one of the biggest comeback stories in sport”.
Bernal’s comments a few days later may have accelerated Froome’s need for clarity over team leadership. The Colombian, more than a decade Froome’s junior, said he would not “throw away an opportunity to win another Tour de France, that’s for sure”.
“That I would sacrifice myself, being at 100%,” Bernal said. “I don’t think I’m going to do that, nor will he [Froome] – nor will anyone.”
The rapidly growing financial crisis that has led to redundancies and pay cuts, may also have forced Froome’s hand. According to the UCI president, David Lappartient, “three, four, five teams have more problems than others. We hope they all reach the end of the season”.
Team Ineos were contacted for comment but have yet to respond.