14/07/2023

"I couldn’t say he’s value for money, no" - Israel-Premier Tech owner lashes out at Chris Froome

After missing out on selection for their Tour de France team, it now seems as if the relationship between Chris Froome and Israel - Premier Tech is now surely on borrowed time.

Israel-Premier Tech owner Sylvan Adams has spoken out on the decision to omit Froome from the Tour de France and criticised the former four-time Maillot Jaune winner for his performances since joining the team from the INEOS Grenadiers. “How could we say we had value for money?” Adams told Cycling Weekly. “We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here so that cannot be considered value for money.”

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“This is not a PR exercise,” Adams continues. “Chris isn’t a symbol, he isn’t a PR tool, he’s supposed to be our leader at the Tour de France and he’s not even here, so no I couldn’t say he’s value for money, no."

"With respect to his injuries, we were really innovative with bringing him back. We sent him to the Red Bull centre in Los Angeles, he worked with amazing specialists to rebalance his legs. Chris’ [recent] performances have nothing to do with his injuries in my observation. I don't think Chris is using that as an excuse anymore," he says. “We took a risk, but we were signing, as I said, the best Grand Tour rider of this generation, and I was willing to take the risk as we were a little team and overnight, we were hoping to become contenders here at the Tour."

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“It did raise our profile, but this isn’t a PR exercise. My idea was, ‘wow, we’re going to have somebody to be relevant for the GC at the Tour de France’ and that hasn’t happened," laments Adams after Froome's finishes of 133rd in 2021 and a DNF in 2022.

"Chris expressed, publicly I think, an interest in possibly riding until the age of 40. That would imply another two years after this year," Adams concludes. “The commitment I made to Chris was that he will retire on our team, so when he decides - with a ceiling of age 40 as those were the parameters we discussed - he wants to hang it up, it’ll be on his terms and that’s the personal commitment I made to Chris. He doesn’t have a five-year contract exactly. But it can go up to five years if Chris so decides.”