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For years a noble helper, now the clear Tour winner: The son of British parents from Kenya from Team Sky Procycling has won the Tour de France with aplomb and climbed the Olympus of cycling for Great Britain. Before the 28-year-old discovered his love for road cycling, he was still conquering the peaks as a mountain biker.
by Henning Heilmann
How Chris Froome came to the Tour de France as a Brit is an exciting story spanning several decades and continents. Froomey has only been pedaling for Great Britain since 2008. In 1985, he was born in Nairobi, the youngest of three sons of a Kenyan and a Briton. His mother, Jane Froome, whose grandparents had emigrated to Kenya, belonged to the small minority of white Kenyans. Today he lives in Monaco with his South African fiancée Michelle Cound, who was born in Wales.
In the Kenyan highlands, he first tried his hand at mountain biking, later moving with his parents to South Africa, where he discovered his love for road cycling. In 2006, he rode for Kenya at the Road World Championships in Salzburg. In the same year, he won the "Tour de Maurice" in Mauritius. In 2007, he rode for Konica Minolta in the second division for South Africa. In June 2008, he acquired British citizenship and made his Tour debut for Barloworld, finishing 83rd at the time. In 2009, he finished 36th in the Giro d'Italia, after which Sky Procycling hired him. About a year later, like his two brothers, he was diagnosed with schistosomiasis, a debilitating tropical disease he contracted in Africa as a teenager.
Only 18 months later he was cured - but "Froomey" returned brilliantly: second at the Vuelta 2011, second at the Tour de France 2012 as "noble helper" of Tour winner Bradley Marc Wiggins. And finally, this year he decided another important race for himself, which is now considered a good omen for "le Tour", as we had noted in our last issue before: Whoever wins the Tour de Romandie also wins the Tour de France. In 2011 it was Cadel Evans, in 2012 Bradley Wiggins, and in 2013 Chris Froome.
Free ride for Froome
Froome had already sniffed the Tour victory in 2012. In the eleventh stage, he had his nose in front. In accordance with the stable management, he finally let Bradley pass. But in 2013, his big chance to win finally came after Wiggins pulled out due to knee problems. After 3,479 hard-fought kilometers, it is now clear: Christopher Froome from Great Britain is the winner of the 2013 Tour de France, despite his unorthodox riding style, which the Neue Zürcher Zeitung compared to pushing a shopping cart. Chris Froome won no fewer than three stages of the 2013 Tour de France, including two difficult stages in the Pyrenees and the longest stage of the Tour, up the fateful Mont Ventoux. This has been considered one of the toughest peaks of the Tour since the death of Briton Tom Simpson. Only on the queen stage with the double climb to Alp d'Huez, he ran out of breath. Even an additional energy bar four kilometers before the finish didn't help much. But it didn't change anything in the overall victory.
The comparisons with Lance
Froome climbed the mountains in times like Lance and Jan once did, with an incredible 446 watts in his stage win to Ax-3-Domaines. With a time on Mont Ventoux that was only two seconds below Armstrong's in 2002. ...(the full article with personal profile can be found in Sportguide Bike - Issue 03/2013)
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