THE 103rd Tour de France sets of from Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy tomorrow and Chris Froome is on the cusp of making history. If the 31 year-old successfully defends the yellow jersey that he won last year, he will join the exalted ranks of three-time winners. Froome’s victory last year was less convincing than many had expected; he was close to letting his lead slip in the latter stages of last year’s race and while Froome is the bookies' favourite for the 2016 edition, he is far from guaranteed success.
Team Sky has not looked nearly as dominant throughout 2016 as they have in past years, although Froome is in good form. Last month, he won the Criterium du Dauphine for the third time in four years and he has stated that he is hungrier for success this year than ever before. Froome’s support riders are strong and include Geraint Thomas, Sergio Hanao, Mikel Landa and Ian Stannard and the route appears tailor-made for the Kenyan-born Brit. But Nairo Quintana, the Colombian who Froome beat into second place last year, is getting better year upon year. The Movistar rider has, too, had a good build-up to this year’s Tour, winning on his last outing in the Route du Sud in impressive fashion and will provide a stiff challenge.
What perhaps will be most interesting to observe, however, is the reception that Team Sky, and Froome in particular, receive. Ever since Sky began dominating the sport, they have been plagued with allegations of doping. It was last year that these allegations really came to a head. Froome was continually jeered and spectators brandished banners casting doubt on his integrity, During one stage, the Briton had a cup of urine thrown in his face.
For decades, the yellow jersey wearer has been subjected to questions of doping but this was a new low and it cast a cloud over the race. Indeed, Jeremy Whittle of the Times called the 2015 race a “toxic, joyless Tour”. The French public is growing weary of the lack of a French winner- it is over 30 years since a home rider claimed the yellow jersey- but their dislike for Froome seems to go further than purely their want for a home winner. The French public has never liked the race to be dominated by one individual and in Team Sky, they are not only dominant, they are dominant in a robotic, unexciting manner. The French love riders who race with panache and it’s fair to say that Froome is somewhat lacking this quality. His quiet, introverted personality does little to endear his detractors to him either.
There has also been a backlash to the way Team Sky is covered in certain sections of the press. The British team is, understandably, protective of its riders and to an extent, shields them from the media, giving only selected journalists exclusive access. When Sky’s staff or riders talk about their continual improvements being due to their marginal gains theory – like omitting red meat from their diet the night before a stage as David Walsh recently reported – there are many who are unwilling to believe that their dominance is down merely to this. There is still too much suspicion around cycling for many to believe that a dietary tweak is enough to ensure they are so much better than the other teams. But Sky are on a hiding to nothing; whatever they say, there will be some who want to believe their riders, and Froome in particular, are doping.
This year, it is likely that there will again be a group of Froome-haters, although it remains to be seen how sizeable it is. But consider the fact that by the end of 2016, he could be a triple Tour winner and have an Olympic gold medal – or two – in his trophy cabinet as just a few weeks after the end of the Tour, he will ride both the time trial and the road race in Rio. If he succeeds, it may not silence his detractors, but it would be one of the greatest sporting achievements that Britain has ever seen.
AND ANOTHER THING
If ever confirmation were needed that golf should never have been included in the Olympic Games, it has come in the past fortnight with the announcement that Rory McIlroy and Jason Day will join the ever-growing list of absentees from Rio. Who knew that male golfers were particularly susceptible to catching the Zika virus?
From the moment that it was confirmed that golf would rejoin the Olympic programme for the first time since 1904, there have been dissenters. I was willing to give golf the benefit of the doubt- after all, tennis was an unpopular choice to rejoin the Olympic programme in 1988 but almost all of the top players now consider an Olympic gold medal a valuable addition to their trophy cabinet. The addition of golf has clearly been folly though, and the IOC should admit their mistake and make sure that golf, or men’s golf in particular, is nowhere near Tokyo in 2020.
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