While many media outlets reported Chris Froome had either a five-year deal with Israel Start-Up Nation or an open ended contract, he has now confirmed for the first time it is much shorter than that.
Indeed, while he began his tenure with the team on January 1st of this year, his contract expires at the end of next season as only a two-year agreement was reached when he signed for the squad.
It is the first time the duration of the deal has been reveled and strongly suggests the four-time Tour winner may hang up his racing wheels at the end of next season at the expiry of his current contract.
However, the 36-year-old said he was still pursuing a fifth win at the Tour de France, adding other riders who were older than him had recently won races.
“I still dream of that fifth Tour victory,” Froome told Italian
newspaper The Republic, “Seeing Alejandro Valverde
and Vincenzo Nibali gives me a lot of motivation to keep training. They are,
respectively, five years and one year older than me but they also won races in
the last month. That gives me courage.”
However, he has also now – again for the first time – spoken of the possibility he will not return to his former level of before his crash in 2019.
“After my fall, I was still in the hospital of
Saint-Étienne thinking about whether I should stop,” he said. “I lined up what
I wanted in my life, whether I wanted to keep racing or do something else.
“Then I discovered that I really like racing, competing, traveling, cycling in the great outdoors. I like the lifestyle of a professional cyclist. Even if I don’t return to my old level, it is invaluable for me to keep cycling.”
He also said his 2018 Giro win, achieved with a long-range solo attack on stage 19, was the best moment of his career. Somewhat surprisingly, he also believed the younger riders now dominating the sport had perhaps learned a new way of racing from his move that day.
“That reckless attack may well have opened the eyes of
others. Take Julian Alaphilippe, Remco Evenepoel, or Mathieu van der Poel: they
are never afraid to attack from afar or to attack several times,” he said.
