08/09/2024

Chris Froome fondly recalls Vuelta a España battles and fans: "They welcomed me warmly and passionately. Why? I don't know, honestly"

Chris Froome had hoped to race the Tour de France this year but was not selected. Ever since, he has just been filling in the calendar where the team asks him to; but hopes to return still next year. At the end of the Vuelta a España, he talked with the Spanish media, recalling some of his most memorable moments in the race.

"I am very grateful to the Spanish public for the way they always treated me. They welcomed me warmly and passionately. Why? I don't know, honestly," Froome admits in an interview with Relevo. "Maybe because they appreciated the spectacle we put on together and the offensive style I always tried to display in La Vuelta." Froome first popped out in the scene at the 2011 Vuelta where he finished second to Juan José Cobo (although he was later handed the win), but came back back in 2017 to take the victory.

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Inbetween were other attempts to win the Spanish Grand Tour... He talks about the 2014 race in which he was defeated by Alberto Contador. "They made that Vuelta so hard for me. I had just retired from the Tour de France due to a fall and I remember that the race was a constant battle with the Spanish, and especially with Contador, who was stronger than me. I tried to beat him in every way possible, especially in Ancares, and I couldn't."

"Every time things got selective, the same four of us were left in front," he refers also to Alejandro Valverde and Joaquím Rodríguez. The trio is made of some of the most popular Spanish riders, but Froome's popularity rivalled theirs in their home ground. "I didn't understand how the public could support me, how they could shout my name, being the foreigner. It was a very pleasant surprise. Then I realized that they were simply enjoying the race we were offering them."

He does not know if he will race again in 2025: "I'm still waiting for them to give me the calendar," he says; and regarding his final career goal? "To ride the Tour again and win a race again, although I know it's difficult."