Froome: Another Tour stage win would be an amazing way to end my career

Chris Froome has revealed his ambition of finishing his storied cycling career with one more “amazing” stage win at the Tour de France.

The 38-year-old has been a key rider in the Tour’s history this century, winning the race four times and placing on the podium on two other occasions.

Asked what goals he has left in cycling, he told Eurosport: “I’m still contracted for this year and for next year, and for now I think that would take me until being 40 years old. I think that for me is quite a good goal to reach 40 and still be racing.

“I would be really happy with that, but I mean in terms of actual goals getting back to the Tour de France and fighting for even a stage win would be for me an amazing way to end my career with at least a few more battles in the mountains.

“A fifth Tour de France for me is always there as a dream, but I think I’ve come to the reality now that returning to that level of really fighting for victory at the Tour de France is certainly going to be very, very difficult.

“For me right now, I would just love to get back to the Tour de France. Even if I’m there fighting in the mountains, potentially for another stage win, that would be amazing.”

Froome, who is currently recovering from a fractured wrist suffered at Tirreno-Adriatico in March, says a few things need to come together for him to challenge again for stage wins.

“Consistency… a little bit of luck as well, or should I say a little bit of not bad luck,” he reflected.

“Unfortunately, things like this [wrist injury] do set me back. I mean crashing is never fun but when you break a bone then it takes time to recover and heal from that, but I think just consistency.

“Time to train, time to go to the races, being healthy. That’s all it takes, but to try and avoid having setbacks and bad luck.”

Froome was once the dominant figure at the Tour de France, winning the race four out of five years from 2013 to 2017.

But these days it is the likes of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) who are the star names at cycling’s biggest race.

“It would have been really interesting to have raced against them in my best years,” said Froome about the new generation of leading riders.

“It would have been interesting to see, but it’s definitely getting younger. There’s definitely a pattern of guys coming in at a much higher level from a younger age.

“I believe that’s because of the amount of information available to coaches who are then training younger athletes. I think there are kids of the age 12, 13 years old, almost training like professionals. By the time they’re 18, they’ve already been doing it for five to six years already, training correctly, eating correctly.

“As you’ve seen, they’re ready to win the world’s biggest races in their early 20s already. It’s quite amazing to witness.”

Asked whether he could see any of today’s riders dominating like the legendary Eddy Merckx did at his peak in the early ’70s, Froome said: “It’s tough. It’s really tough.

“It goes in waves. At the moment, it definitely seems to feel like a wave of the Jumbo-Visma team having won all the Grand Tours last year. But cycling is a sport that’s always evolving, always changing, and there will always be new rivals coming up. Let’s see. I think it’s very rare in this day and age to see one rider really dominating everything the way Eddy Merckx did back in his era.

“I think the sport’s just evolved so much and become so specific that it’s very hard for someone to be good over all types of terrain. That’s one thing that Tadej Pogacar really impresses me in the sense that he’s able to win one-day Classics like Flanders or Strade Bianche and also be there challenging in the Grand Tours, so it’s very impressive.”

Both Vingegaard and Pogacar have won the Tour de France twice and will be aiming for a third win this summer. That would place them one behind Froome and two behind Merckx, who is joint-top of the overall standings.

Had Froome not crashed at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2019, he could well be sitting alongside Merckx with five Tour de France titles.

“It had a huge impact on me that crash,” said Froome.

“It was really at the worst moment, just before the Tour de France. I was in fantastic shape, hoping to go and fight for the fifth victory at the Tour de France.

“But that’s life. That’s also part of the sport. It is a dangerous sport. These accidents do happen. We’ve seen many serious accidents in the last weeks and months as well, where riders have broken several bones. Unfortunately, it’s a part of the sport.

“It definitely brought my Grand Tour challenging days to an end, certainly. I found it very difficult to come back to a competitive level. But on a more personal, human side, that crash took me months, if not even a full year, to try and recover from that. Just to learn to walk again, to walk normally without limping, took me over a year.

“It was a big crash, but I’m really glad to be back racing now and to have no pain. I feel extremely grateful to have another chance.”