He won in pain. The Columbia rider Chris Froome won on Sunday his second Tour de France in Paris, despite the suspicion and aggression. A victory in the image of the career of this rider to life unconventional, made repeated obstacles which he has often triumphed.
“I fought against so many things,” said Chris Froome evening of his triumph, in reference to his opponents (mainly Colombian Quintana) and a tense extra-sporting context.
Froome is English (by his father), but was born in Kenya in 1985 and spent his childhood before his father, active in tourism, only moved to South Africa 14 years later, leaving his mother, physiotherapist, exercise in Nairobi.
The Little Chris gave his first pedal strokes to five years on a BMX before taking a taste for long walks in the Kenyan savannah. His first memories of the Tour de France, these are TV pictures in Johannesburg. he is 16 years old. “I thought I wanted to get to that level, he said. So I started working out every morning before school on the road.”
In the shadow of Wiggins
Without structure in Africa, Chris Froome briefly at the World Cycling Centre, based in Switzerland, which helps Apprentices riders emerging countries. “Chris was already a big engine, remembers one of the coaches, Michel Thèze, which is therefore not surprised that” Froomey “quickly seduce a small professional team, Konica Minolta.
His maturation It can start a place in larger teams through Barloworld before joining Sky in 2010. But the ascent is not easy and is slowed by two spoilsport. schistosomiasis and his compatriot Bradley . Wiggins
Chris Froome, winner of the 2015 Tour de France, July 26, 2015 at the end of the final stage on the Champs-Elysées
afp.com/JEFF PACHOUD
In 2010, a parasitic infection that attacks the red blood cells threatens his career. Froome will more than a year to recover, narrowly missing being ejected at Sky. And when he returns to form, Britain is faced with competition from Wiggins.
In 2011, Sky Wiggins chooses the card in the Vuelta. This is third. Froome finished second but is convinced he could have won in other circumstances. A year later, in the Tour, he was again in Wiggins service. And again second while its leader dons yellow.
The English patient must wait until 2013 to reap the fruits of his labor and win the 100th Tour. “A dream,” he said.
Suspicion increasing its performance
At the time, his style, his pedaling frequency, his skinny appearance (1.86 m to less than 70 kilos) and how to run Sky are then born first suspicions. Froome said he understood. “This is the legacy of the bike, the long history of our sport for doping who wants that,” analyzes the one who believes “have nothing to hide”, hammering is “a clean rider.”
But suspicion – arising mainly from a supersonic attack in the Ventoux in 2013 – do not let the most. They are transformed virtually indicted during his dramatic acceleration in La Pierre Saint-Martin, the tenth stage of the 2015 Tour he had begun “hungry” after its abandonment fall a year earlier.
The former comments runners become consultants, and Froome “deplores” agitate the edge of the Tour roads. Jets of beer and urine, sputum, displaced gestures, hostile banners. Nothing is spared in the yellow jersey which nevertheless remains unmoved. Phlegmatic.
“99% of spectators supported me. There is certainly deplorable and unacceptable behavior but I think it does not apply to me personally and are mostly circumstantial,” said Froome. The protégé of Dave Brailsford regrets however be the only one targeted. “Quintana was faster than me in the mountains,” he notes.
His arguments do not convince its detractors. Especially when he says, hand on heart, that what he likes in cycling, “it’s more training than glory.” Froome is actually a fan of the hard courses. “I like to push my body to the limit.”
The history will show that it is a clean racer, he assures. All sports touch wood that’s the case.
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