Chris Froome dropped again at Criterium du Dauphine as Tour de France role comes into question
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Updated 13/08/2020 at 16:59 GMT
Chris Froome lost more time at the Criterium du Dauphine in Thursday's Stage 2, sitting up on the final climb.
Christopher Froome of The United Kingdom and Team INEOS
Image credit: Getty Images
It is the second day in a row that Froome has sat up at the Dauphine, raising questions over his fitness ahead of the Tour de France.
However, it is yet unclear as to whether Froome's lost time is a result of lack of fitness, a planned training decision, or the result of a tactical move to help defacto team leader Egan Bernal.
Whether Team Ineos will pick Froome for the Tour has come into question, partly due to his performances since returning from injury and partly due to his impending departure from the team to join Israel Start-Up Nation. This display will add further doubts over Froome's chances of selection.
"Chris Froome has a rueful look and gives us the thumbs up," said commentator Carlton Kirby as the TV bike dropped back to see Froome slipping off the peloton. "He's coming back into a race of course that defined the last 12 months for him with a horrendous accident. Great to see him back though."
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Chris Froome and Adam Yates sit up on final climb at Critérium du Dauphiné
"He's smiling," added co-commentator Matt Stephens. "He's obviously pulled the pin for a reason or a can't hold on any longer."
After the stage, Froome spoke to ITV reporters and responded to concerns over his Tour selection, saying:
I feel as if I’m getting better and better. Being there at the pointy end of the race… I wasn’t able to do a huge amount for the guys today, but being there on the final climb all adds up to the preparation and intensity towards the Tour.
"I’m just going to take it one day at a time at the moment, do everything I can and see where we are in a couple of weeks’ time."
Froome wasn't the only big name to lose time on the day, with Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates and Steven Kruijswijk also sitting up.
Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma broke away to win the stage, but has a General Classification lead of just eight seconds over a strong chasing group.
The early-season struggles of Chris Froome were discussed on the latest Bradley Wiggins Show podcast, with Froome's former team-mate calling for patience while acknowledging that a fairytale Tour de France win looks unlikely.
“Bear in mind we’re three weeks away from the Tour now, the business end of the Tour is five weeks away, so you don’t want to be backing off yet," Wiggins said. "There’s still time to get improvements and Froome will improve with every race he does because of where he’s coming from, which was basically in intensive care at one point.
He was in critical condition when he actually had the accident. Every day is a bonus for him and if you told him he’d be back racing a year ago and told him he’d be in the Tour team he’d have taken that, wouldn’t he.
“Everyone wanted that fairy-tale recovery from that horror crash – a crash that would have ended many careers last year. We wanted to see Chris Froome back to his best last year with Ineos, back to the best Grand Tour winning form that he can possess. It doesn’t look like, at the moment, we are seeing that.”
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