Froome on Strava and then …..not

CYCLING WEEKLY REBLOG:

Does Tour de France champion Chris Froome have a Strava account? Someone uploading rides under the name of ‘Luke Skywalker’ accompanied Team Sky’s Ian Boswell during training rides in South Africa, and they are seriously quick up mountains.

Boswell said yesterday that only he and Froome and been training together in South Africa – which leads us to the not very clever conclusion that the mysterious Luke Skywalker (Sky-walker, get it?) is indeed Froome.

However, the account was deleted on Wednesday, March 2, shortly after this article was published.

The Skywalker account was created on February 18, kicking off with a ride with Boswell. The two riders covered 172km (107 miles) at a seriously impressive average speed of 31km/h (19.2mph), particularly given they climbed just under 3000 metres in total. Maximum speed was a scary 83kmh (51.7mph).

A series of identical rides were then logged on both Boswell’s and Skywalker’s accounts, the longest being 214km (133 miles) on Monday, February 29. The two riders covered that distance at an average speed of 34.7kmh (21.6mph). No wonder Boswell said in a blog this week that Froome pushed him to the limit.

As you may expect, both Skywalker and Boswell had secured pretty much all of the KOMs on the mountain roads in the region where they were riding, including the 9km (5.6 miles) Steenbrasberg Pass at an average of five per cent gradient. Now that the Skywalker account has been deleted, the KOMs are all Boswell’s.

Boswell has now returned to Europe, and will start Paris-Nice on Sunday. Froome will continue training in South Africa and commences his European campaign at the Volta a Catalunya on March 21.

Froome – if it is him – may need to brush up on his Star Wars knowledge though, as they used a photo of Anakin Skywalker on the account rather than Luke. Schoolboy error.

 

Reblog: Froome fashionista

Is he on a trampoline? Chris Froome pictured mid-air with Pinarello Dogma on the cover of Issue 1 of sports magazine UNLTD

Chris Froome, perhaps better known for his steely determination on the bike, has been snapped doing his own version of ‘blue steel(link is external)‘ for a magazine shoot.

As if on a trampoline, Froome appears on the cover of French football magazine Surface’s new title, UNLTD, suspended in mid-air gripping a Pinarello Dogma and wearing some sort of fashion blanket-cape-hoodie. We think it rather suits him.

The Froome cover is one of three images for UNLTD’s first edition featuring pro athletes – all of them seemingly on the UNLTD trampoline – the other two being basketballer Kevin Durant, and French Pole Vaulter, Renaud Lavillenie.

Who said cyclists can’t be fashionable?

Froome Wiggins spat is over …..

AFP

Tour de France champion Chris Froome, left, says he and team-mate at Sky Bradley Wiggins have patched up their differences and are on good terms.

Chris Froome was stopped by the police the other day. It was a random check in Monaco and the officer simply wanted to see his driving licence.

But the moment Froome climbed off his motor scooter and lifted the visor of his crash helmet, the tone of their encounter changed. ‘He suddenly pulled out his phone and asked for a picture of us together,’ says Froome with a smile.

It is one example of how life has changed for the 28-year-old winner of this year’s Tour de France. Another would be the fact that he is among the contenders for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award this weekend.

But Froome has reached a point in his life where he wants to see more change. He wants to play a key role in leading his sport away from its drug-ridden past and into a brighter, cleaner future. And he wants to stop talking about the very public spat he has had with Sir Bradley Wiggins, his team-mate at Sky, since the 2012 Tour.

He rather hopes this interview will mark the last time he has to deal with such questions, even if he intends to revisit certain events in more detail in his autobiography.

‘The fact is Brad and I have just been on a training camp together in Mallorca and we’ve had a talk about things,’ says Froome. ‘It was very constructive and we are in a good place now. It was important we did that and it was important for the team, too.

‘To be honest we should have done it a very long time ago, just to clear the air, but we are on good terms now.’

This is quite a revelation and in his mind, at least, it brings closure to a bitter rivalry that has even seen their partners get involved.

It dates back to Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour, on the climb to the summit of La Toussuire. Froome’s job was to act as super-domestique to Wiggins; to protect his team leader’s position in the yellow jersey, often by guiding him up the Tour’s most brutal climbs.

But four kilometres from the top Froome attacked, springing out of his saddle and not only racing away from his rivals for a place on the podium — he would finish second in Paris — but from Wiggins.

It was astonishing, not least because Sean Yates, then Sky’s sports director, ordered Froome over the team radio to return to Wiggins’s side. Wiggins had cracked, after all, and was now losing precious time on the main threat to Sky’s dominance, the Italian Vincenzo Nibali.

In his recently published autobiography, Yates claimed Froome had reneged on an agreement that had been reached with the two riders the previous evening that he could attempt to win the stage, but only once Wiggins was safely delivered to nearer the top of the climb; with 500m to go.

According to Yates, Wiggins was so shaken by the episode that team principal Sir Dave Brailsford had to persuade him not to quit the race. Comments would then appear on Twitter from Wiggins’s wife, Cath, and Froome’s girlfriend, Michelle.

There would be further acrimony when Wiggins suggested a few months later that he would attempt to defend his title, knowing full well that Brailsford had already selected Froome as team leader for the 2013 race.

In another recently published book, it emerged that Wiggins was rather slow in paying Froome the bonus the winner of the Tour traditionally gives his team-mates.

Now, however, things appear to have improved. After receiving his knighthood at Buckingham Palace yesterday, Wiggins said he would be happy to play a ‘support role’ for Froome in next year’s Tour, while Froome, it has to be said, is every bit as respectful towards Wiggins as we reflect on the situation in the bar of a smart central London hotel. ‘The incident in 2012 was at the root of it all,’ says Froome. ‘I’m not sure it was that big a problem but it was all played out so much in the media, it was allowed to escalate.

‘Michelle got caught in the crossfire, too. At the end of the day she has her opinions and they’re not necessarily my opinions. But she’s very passionate about supporting me when she sees negative things. She’s just being loyal to me.’

Perhaps he should explain 2012 from his perspective. ‘It was a huge misunderstanding where I thought I was reading the race right,’ he says. ‘I thought the race had evolved in such a way that opened the door for me to go. Obviously it was the wrong moment.

‘And I thought if something happens to Brad, like it had the previous year when he crashed, I want to be in the strongest possible position if I’m then asked to take over. It didn’t even cross my mind to attack Brad.

‘People need to remember the Vuelta (the Tour of Spain) the year before, when Brad dropped off on the climbs and the team suddenly said, “Well, you go for GT (general classification)”. But I was too far behind by then and I lost the race, finishing second, by something like 11 seconds.

‘I accept that I read the situation wrong (in 2012). I thought Brad was fine. But it very quickly became apparent that it was a problem and that I needed to stop and come back, which is what I did.’

Froome won’t talk about the bonus story, confirming only that he has now received the money due to him from Wiggins. He is also reluctant to go into their conversation in Mallorca. ‘We’re very different people,’ he says. ‘Brad would say the same. But, like I say, we’re in a good place now.’

As fascinating a soap opera as it is, you can sympathise with his sense of frustration. This, after all, is a golden era for British road cycling and the qualities of two British Tour winners really need to be celebrated.

Off the bike, Froome is charming. He strides into the hotel lobby with a grin almost as wide as his slender frame and when he does complain in his soft South African accent that too many interviews are dominated by questions about his relationship with Wiggins, he could not be more polite about it.

I ask him if, like Wiggins, he rides a Vespa. ‘It’s a Yamaha,’ he says, laughing. ‘I’m just not that trendy.’ He also says the car he occasionally drives through Casino Square was chosen simply because it was ‘easy for throwing the bike in the back’. Not a Ferrari, then.

He shares a one-bedroom apartment with Michelle. ‘For training Monaco really is fantastic,’ he says. ‘The weather’s great and every day I slip out the back of Monaco and into the hills and mountains. I pretty much won’t see a car.’

As a rider, he really is a joy to watch. Wiggins’s Tour success was built on his time trial prowess and his ability to live with the world’s best climbers. Froome is no mean time trial rider either but he attacks his rivals on the climbs at a time when the race is being dominated by such specialists.

‘I like to think I’m quite an instinctive racer,’ he says. ‘We always go into a stage with a plan but a race is such a delicate thing. It’s always evolving. It can just be about the moment. It’s as much a psychological battle as a physical one, about who gives in first.

‘I’ve always recognised that the pain you suffer in that moment is temporary, and I always tell myself how much I will enjoy it afterwards if I can endure that pain.’

He will continue to endure it because he wants to win more Tour titles and prove that such a feat can be achieved without the assistance of performance-enhancing drugs.

‘Part of what’s driving me is a desire to show, post-Armstrong, that it’s possible to have successive Tour victories clean,’ he says.

Ideally with the assistance of Wiggins. – Daily Mail

See more:http://www.iol.co.za/sport/cycling/froome-wiggins-spat-is-over-1.1620511#.Uqhou_RdXW8

 

did wiggo hold back on froome?

from road.cc

A new book claims that Sir Bradley Wiggins snubbed Team Sky colleague Chris Froome after winning last year’s Tour de France – by splitting his prize money with all his other team-mates, excluding the man who would this year succeed him to the yellow jersey.

In his book, Inside Team Sky, Sunday Times chief sports writer David Walsh says that Wiggins eventually paid Froome the money during the week of this year’s World Championships in Florence – 14 months after the race finished, and on the insistence of team principal, Sir Dave Brailsford.

Besides the €450,000 for winning the General Classification, Wiggins would also have earned money for stage placings, including €8,000 for each of the two time trials he won – and for days spent in the yellow jersey.

Froome finished runner-up to Wiggins in the race – which would have netted him €200,000 – but Tour de France tradition dictates that overall winner shares his prize money with all the riders who help him win.

Tensions ran high between Wiggins and Froome in the second half of the race after the latter appeared to attack his team leader on Stage 11 to La Toussuire-Les-Sybelles, slowing down to wait for him only on the orders of sports director, Sean Yates.

The incident sparked a row on Twitter between Wiggins’ wife Cath, and Froome’s now fiancée, Michelle Cound.

There was another exchange towards the end of the final mountain stage of the race that suggested all was not well in the Sky camp, with Froome gesticulating at the Tour’s winner-in-waiting.

Walsh’s book is already on sale through Amazon, including for Kindle devices and apps, and should hit bookstores this weekend.

He confirmed on Twitter  that the episode regarding Wiggins, Froome and the payment of the bonus is included within the book.

Lemond wants to see the ‘power’ and I think he should

MONT VENTOUX, France (VN) — Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond likes what he sees these days in pro cycling from Chris Froome and Sky.

Mostly.

The American was atop Mont Ventoux for the Froome show on Sunday and fielded a few questions on the famous mountain’s summit.

LeMond has been sharply critical of performances by modern stars during their respective eras (Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador), but he held back from accusing today’s best grand tour rider of cheating.

Instead, he said Sky and other teams should release power data to be reviewed by independent panelists in conjunction with blood profiles to add to the biological passport program.

And he didn’t mince words about teams’ reluctance to release that data to experts.

“It’s bullshit. That’s bullshit. Because if you can’t release your watts … they’re doing it right now,” he said of teams reviewing power data following the stage. “They’re looking at it right now, bottom to the top.

“The worst part, there’s speculating on that. If you don’t have anything to hide, and you can repeat it, give it to everybody.”

Opponents of releasing data, be it blood values or power numbers, have said the figures are ripe for misinterpretation.

“But that’s what they said about drug controls. ‘It’s subject to interpretation’ … it isn’t,” LeMond said. “You’d never use it as a positive. You’d look at [data] along with your blood profile. It wouldn’t be a positive.”

LeMond said releasing riders’ data “would end the speculation,” the whispers that attribute every great ride to doping.

“It would be great to end that,” he said. “It’s for the riders. It would be ideal for everybody. You get rid of the speculation.”

Speculation hasn’t been in short supply at this Tour, after Froome’s displays of mastery over the climbs, the time trial, and former rivals now quarreling over podium scraps.

Riders at this Tour have been asked repeatedly about performance-enhancing drugs and surreal performances, a hangover from the Lance Armstrong scandal, the confession of Jan Ullrich, and many other bitter post-mortems.

Releasing power data could put an end to some of those questions, LeMond said.

“It could be released six weeks after, six months. … It’s very simple, actually. You take the guy’s weight. You get the temperature, from here to there, and there’s the watts. So [Sky’s Dave Brailsford is] better off just putting it away, just showing it,” LeMond said.

“If they use watts. If not, it’s all going to be speculation. Because the ultimate energy, everything you put in, everything that goes out of you, has to go through those pedals. It’s power, and that’s it. It’s so basic, I go, ‘Why is everybody avoiding this?’”

Sky’s management has made a point of zero tolerance in doping, releasing staff who have admitted to involvement in the past, such as coach Bobby Julich.

They’ve also made a point of promoting a “marginal gains” approach, meaning no detail is too small to worry over if it can help take time from competitors.

“They put the money in it. They run it the way they should,” LeMond said of the team. “If you have that money you should run it really professionally.

“I think it’s great. They’ve got a professional attitude. I think the British cycling, just the whole cycling in Britain, has been great. It’s really brought people into cycling. It’s a good thing. It’s a really good thing. The only thing I have negative to say is that part. The watts.”

On Froome, LeMond said the holder of the yellow jersey (by more than four minutes, as of Sunday’s destruction on Mont Ventoux) was a natural if ever there was one.

“Froome looks like a talent. I would say the only question is, back it up with watts. Because if he comes up [Ventoux] as 475 watts average, that’s going to be 6.8 watts per kilo. …”

And so it goes.

Asked if he thought it logical that a clean rider would eventually surpass the high-water marks of a doped one, LeMond said yes. And he thinks there are clean riders competing today.

“I do believe. I absolutely believe that,” he said.

“I don’t want to come and speculate about shit, I really don’t. Because I love the sport, and I think riders, you know … they’ve been in an incredibly difficult situation.

“I think you could eliminate so much … I want to defend riders, too.”

When is a climb too steep

ROAD.CC

On yesterday’s sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, a 30% climb near the finish of a rain soaked stage produced the unthinkable: photos of professional cyclists dismounted and pushing their bikes.

The photos of the professional riders walking up the climb, dismounted and pushing their bikes, grinding their cleats into the Tarmac, has gone viral since the photos first hit the internet. It was the Strada Cocciari summit on the Sant’Elpidio a Mare climb that caused the damage, a 300m stretch with an 18% average gradient and 30% final 50m ramp.

While the front runners managed to ride the cruel slopes, many of those further back in the peloton clearly found it too much and dismount. These were the riders who had done a lot of work setting the pace and taking the wind earlier in the stage, and they were obviously pretty knackered by the time they hit the climb. And it did come at the end of a 200km stage…

What made the climb especially hard is the slippery surface caused by heavy rainfall. Traction is easy to come by in the dry, even on such a steep slope. Following persistent rain ,however, traction becomes a scarce commodity and stopping the wheels from spinning while applying the necessary power would have been nearly impossible. This is the main reason so many riders resorted to walking.

It would seem that many of the riders didn’t anticipate the severity of the route’s parcours and simply arrived in too big a gear. Chris Froome’s mechanics had reportedly made a change to the gearing of his Pinarello, fitting a 36×28 lowest gear. Even that was too hard, he’s quoted as saying.

Next time we’re at the point of considering dismounting, we can all take comfort in the fact that even the best sometimes have to walk

 

A classic stage today in the TDF – drama in the hills

what a stage today in the tdf …. So glad the dominant years of past are over – yellow seeming far from safe today as attack after attack came.
Roland who won was fantastic … And tegay van garderan from BMC could have easily caught him if he wasn’t pegged back under team orders to help Cadel Evans. There should be a ‘call of duty’ award for the faithful lieutenant although Tegay may have had to share that prize today with Chris Froome who stayed back to help Wiggins but was rewarded with a second place when the pace dropped Cadel and Froome got himself second place. It’s a long time since I saw a 1,2 from the same team ….. Froome could easily get poached by a team as a future leader so Sky will have to make him stay …..

If there was any lingering doubt about the strength of the Sky team, then wonder no more: the British outfit is the dominant force in the 99th Tour de France. The stage to La Tourssuire might have been won by a Frenchman – with Pierre Rolland pulling off another tremendous climbing coup to go alongside his triumph at Alpe d’Huez from the 2011 Tour – but Great Britain is in complete command of the general classification. Wiggins increased his advantage over last year’s champion, Cadel Evans, after the Australian suffered a little crisis on the final climb and had to be nursed home by the leader of the youth classification Tejay van Garderen. While Evans battled his way up the last mountain, Rolland danced ahead to an emphatic victory and then came the battle for minor places on GC, which was won by Christopher Froome who now moves up to second overall, 18 seconds ahead of another of today’s aggressors, Vincenzo Nibali. The result sheet tells much of the story but it was a race with many attacks, several winners and quite a few losers.

The progress reportThe 148km 11th stage of the 2012 Tour began at 1.17pm with 174 riders in the race. The non-starter was Fabian Cancellara (RNT). The mountains on the course were ‘HC’ col de la Madeleine (2,000m high at 40km), ‘HC’ col de la Croix de Fer (2,067m high at 93km), category-two col du Molland (1,638m at 113km) and the finishing climb to La Toussuire (category-one, at the end of the 148km stage). The final rise offered double points in the climbing classification. The intermediate sprint was in St-Etienne-de-Cuines (at 70km).

The attacks begin earlyGesink attacked the peloton as soon as the stage began. He was joined by 30 others and, at 10km, they had a lead of 20”. Others in the early move were: Burghardt, Cummings, Gilbert (BMC), Popovych (RNT), Malacarne (EUC), Koren (LIQ), Martin (GRS), Cherel and Riblon (ALM), Hoogerland (VCD), Paolini (KAT), Karpets (MOV), Sorensen and Sorensen (STB), Grivko, Iglinskiy, Kieserlovski and Vinokourov (AST), De Weert and Pineau (OPQ)… there were others but by the 20km mark there were just seven in the lead: Koren, Martin, Riblon, Hoogerland, C. Sorensen, Kieserlovski and Vinokourov. Valverde (MOV) chased them down at 23km. At 24km the eight leaders were joined by: Kiryienka, Horner, Malacarne, Kadri, Basso, P. Velits and Weening. Boasson Hagen led the peloton all the way up the Madeleine climb. Kessiakoff tries to take back the polka-dot jerseyAt the top of the Madeleine there were 28 with a lead of 2’55” on the peloton. The lead group was composed of: Moinard (BMC), Horner (RNT), Kern, Malacarne and Rolland (EUC), Scarponi and Marzano (LAM), Koren and Basso (LIQ), Martin (GRS), Kadri and Riblon (ALM), Feillu (SAU), Hoogerland (VCD), Ten Dam and Kruiswijk (RAB), Valverde and Kiryienka (MOV), C. Sorensen (STB), Kessiakoff, Kiserlovski and Vinokourov (AST), Leipheimer and P. Velits (OPQ), Weening (OGE). Velits led Kessiakoff over the top to claim the 25 points and they continued their attack on the 19km downhill. They led the Valverde group by as much as 50” but the lead pair was caught by the other escapees at 63km. Col de la Croix de Fer: Evans goes on the attackEarly on the second climb, there was a regrouping at the front and 22 were in the lead: Moinard, Horner, Kern, Rolland, Scarponi, Marzano, Basso, Martin, Kadri, Trofimov, Ten Dam, Valverde, Kiryienka, Sorensen, Kessiakoff, Kisierlovski, Vinokourov, Leipheimer, Veltis and Weening. They led the peloton by 2’30”. Scarponi, Marzano and Moinard were the first to drop out of the lead group. With 15km to climb Leipheimer also quit his efforts in the lead group, then Valverde and Basso.At 79km, van Garderen (BMC) attacked the yellow jersey’s group but there was no reaction from Wiggins et al. It was clearly a plan hatched by the team of the defending champion for, at 81km, Evans launched an attack and soon caught his team-mate. They worked together to build a maximum advantage on the yellow jersey of 20” but were caught after 5km on the attack. Rogers was responsible for the capture, leading Wiggins, Porte and Froome up to Evans and the white jersey without once getting out of the saddle to increase his tempo.Rolland took the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’ by beating Kessiakoff in a tight sprint for honours atop the highest pass in the Alps. The yellow jersey was 2’10” behind at the top of the col de Croix de Fer. Evans cracks on the final climb slips down the rankings…After a shortlived attack by Velits, Rolland and Kiserlovksi found themselves at the front of the stage with 40km to go. They were caught by Kiryienka at 39km to go and, at the top, this was the situation: Rolland was first (taking 5pts) with his trio in tact. Then came Sorensen at 10”, Ten Dam at 1’00”, Velits at 1’25”, Martin and Kessiakoff at 2’05”, Horner at 2’38”, Pinot at 3’08” and the peloton at 3’20”. Rolland crashed on a left turn on the descent, 26km from the finish but he rejoined the lead with 22km to go. The four leaders started the final climb with an advantage of 1’15” to Ten Dam and Velits, 2’55” to Martin and Kessiakoff, and 3’30” to the peloton. There were 16 in the yellow jersey group: Wiggins, Porte, Froome, Evans, van Garderen, Schleck, Horner, Zubeldia, Kloden, Nibali, Roche, Coppel, Pinot, van den Broeck, Cobo and Brajkovic. Nibali attacked the yellow jersey with 12km to go, eliminating all but Evans, Wiggins, Froome, Schleck and Van Garderen from the yellow jersey group. He was caught after 1.5km but the Italian attacked again with 10km to go. He joined van den Broeck, Brajkovic and Pinot. With 6.5km to go, Evans was dropped from the yellow jersey group. Once Wiggins and co caught Nibali (around 4.5km to go) there seemed to be a discussion between the Sky riders and Froome attacked shortly afterwards. Pinot reacted quickly and so too did the others but Wiggins couldn’t match the pace. Froome quickly quit his effort but still this group was able to gain time on Evans who was struggling to hold the wheel of van Garderen. Eventually the Australian would lost 1’26” to the overall leader meaning he slipped down the rankings and Sky assumed first and second place overall, with Froome finishing two seconds ahead of his leader, Wiggins. Rolland races to another impressive mountain stage winPierre Rolland was on his own at the front of the stage with 10km to go and he never looked back. Just like last year at Alpe d’Huez he not only held off the challenge of his former escape companions, he put time into them and ultimately was the only rider to finish the stage ahead of the yellow jersey’s group. Wiggins managed his strength and was able to ride the final section of the climb in the slipstream of Froome but, in the closing 500m the domestique was given the nod to race for second place honours and improve his position on GC. Pinot outsprinted Froome for second place and gave the host nation a first-second in the 11th stage. The yellow jersey was sixth over the line – in the same time as Nibali who moved up to third overall. Cadel Evans slipped from 2nd to fourth overall, 3’19” behind Wiggins.Bradley Wiggins leads his team-mate Froome by 2’05” at the top of the general classification and he will wear the yellow jersey in stage 12.