Froome

Shrinking Time Trials

The Tour de France’s route was out and one of the features of the 2019 course was the lack of time trialling, both in the number of stages and the few kilometres on offer. It’s part of a trend as the chart above shows. One frequent response in the comments and by email in recent days is that more time trials, whether more stages or just one long time trial, would “balance” the Tour’s course and give time trial specialists and others more of a chance against the pure climbers. It’s an idea that sounds right… only recent evidence suggests otherwise.

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Tour de France Contenders

Here’s a look at the contenders for the biggest prize in pro cycling, the maillot jaune in Paris. Chris Froome returns once again but this time his rivals will hope to profit from fresher legs and the toughest route in years. With luck the predictions below will be totally wrong.

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Much Ado About Something

Chris Froome goes from persona non grata to all clear in the space of a couple of days, the UCI has announced the salbutamol case from last year’s Vuelta has been closed. The *asterisk of pending resolution is deleted, the Sword of Damocles sheathed and ASO suspend the action they began three weeks ago to block Froome from riding the Tour de France. But all the same things won’t return to the state they were when things were normal.

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Froome and the Giro’s Risk

As mentioned in the post looking at the overall contenders, to cite Chris Froome is to mention his ongoing case with the UCI following the adverse analytical finding for salbutamol in the Vuelta. While all riders have to watch out for the climbs, descents, corners, bad weather and more over the next three weeks Chris Froome runs the added risk of being taken out of the race by a tribunal or seeing his result disqualified after the race finishes in Rome, an obvious concern for the event itself too. The probability of these events is unknown but the risk exists which is awkward.

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Froome-quently Asked Questions

Chris Froome is set to resume racing at the upcoming Ruta Del Sol race in Spain. So far, so normal as it’s common for stage race specialists to start their season here, Froome himself did so in 2015 (pictured) and you might remember his battle with Alberto Contador. This isn’t a normal situation with Froome’s ongoing anti-doping case following the excessive quantity of salbutamol from last year’s Vuelta. There are lots of questions, here are a few answers…

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Specified Substance Shorts

A collection of Froome and Sky loose ends. First one of this week’s blog topics was going to be how Team Sky could be coming to an end. No, not for the reasons in the news, instead down to corporate activity far away on Wall Street. Disney has announced it is buying 21st Century Fox, the company which ultimately owns Sky. You might have seen the 21st Century Fox logo on the Sky kit. It seems probable the Sky brand lives on, the threat to the team comes from the Murdoch family,nif James Murdoch goes and does something else. He’s been the pro team’s biggest backer and without him the new owners may decided enough is enough… or current management think their sponsorship has had a good run, time to try something less accident-prone.

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Chris Froome’s Salbutamol Case

The UCI has announced that Chris Froome has given an Adverse Analytical Finding for Salbutamol following a test during the Vuelta a España. The announcement alone is curious given two newspapers seem got a scoop to have got hold of the story but add in that it’s Froome, that he could be stripped of the Vuelta title, serve a ban and that the substance in question has particular rules make this a complex topic and Twitter today has seen more speculation than a Bitcoin chatroom. Let’s try to explore the matter at hand…

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World Championships Time Trial Preview

A duel between Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome, this season’s grand tour winners? Wednesday’s course features the tricky climb of Mount Fløyen with steep slopes and tight hairpin bends.

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The Moment The Tour de France Was Won

The years go by and the result is the same as Chris Froome wins his fourth Tour de France in five years. This year was different with a trio of inseparable riders in the mountains where the contest was so close that they were scrapping over time bonuses, if not to beat Froome then at least to ensure place on the podium. But like last year Froome built his win in the time trials, dominating them in Düsseldorf and dispatching them in Marseille.

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